The Blackwell chronicles
by Scorchedash
Summary: The story is about River Blackwell that returns to Hogwarts doing the tumultuous times after the defeat of Voldemort. She returns to fear and hate as she was one of the unlucky to be turned into a werewolf for the Deatheaters experiments. She is not the only one as the hatred towards Slytherin still lives on. The other houses have not forgotten last year and they will not forgive.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 The Return to Hogwarts

The train served as a lullaby as River drowsed in a rare moment of peace. She was feeling the effects of missing almost an entire night of sleep and drifted closer and closer to sleep when the door to her otherwise empty compartment opened. The sudden noise jolted her awake and she stared wide-eyed as she scanned the room for the noise source of the. Her eyes meet the terrified ones of a young boy River did not recognize. He was a scrawny boy with blond almost White short hair and blue eyes. after a moment of being frozen in fear, he almost fell as he ran outside the compartment. She had the urge to scream in frustration. That was the second person this trip to have that reaction. She felt like this was a preview of the coming school year.

The thought of putting on her sunglasses or even her silly eye-patch so that she would be able to enter the castle without being recognised enter her mind again. But no, she did not have the luxury of anonymity and it would feel like she betrayed something if she tried to hide what she was.

She noticed something on the ground where the little boy must have dropped it. Her mood became even darker when she realized what it was. It was the daily profit article about her recent acceptance back to Hogwarts. It had made the front page and now her own face where looking left and right like she was searching for something with her hair in a brown mess. She had a frightened look which enchanted her left eye. The eye was completely light blue except her pupil which was a slit like a snake which made the other normal brown seem a bit boring. Her patches of green scales were thankfully hidden by a scarf around her face and her mess of a hair. She had cut the hair shorter so that it nowhere only to her neck and she was using magic makeup on the scales. She looked with an irritated stare as if she could make the article size to exist just by being annoyed enough which sadly did not seem to be the case. The title read "Girl in the werewolf experiment approved to return to Hogwarts". The anxiety that had held her up all night returned. She knew that people had the impression that the experiment had been conducted to create super werewolf and had the notion that she was stronger than a normal werewolf or that she had some special abilities. The article even made the incursion that she had powers without any proof to back it up. Which were bull, as far as she could remember at least. If you did count not having a sense of taste a superpower she thought bitterly. The silver lining in this mess was that not many people took the profit seriously as it had been the mouthpiece of he who must not be named and before that its attack on harry potter and Dumbledore two years prior.

The door open again and River was ready to face another person that would run away as soon as they saw her or something equally horrible like passing out at the sight of her. But to her relief, it was her older sister. Her sister had changed greatly in two years. She still had the same brown long hair and the same light brown eyes. Her height had not change much but River height had as she was now a bit taller than her two-year older sibling. Which still felt weird even if she had been back for almost two months. What had really changed was that she had gone from being slightly overweight when she had last seen her before the capture to being fit. They had not discussed it but she figured that their late fathers interest in exercise had something to do with the transformation. The badge that marked her as being head girl gleaming in the sunlight. She sat down opposite of her with a heavy sigh.

"you are early, did something happened?" River said using sign language Her sister answered using the same "No there are not many Slytherin on the train, we are not even half of what we usually are and another reason I am early is i" she paused in concentration with a sad look on her face before giving up and saying out loud

"switching I where switching with Tomas our head boy but how did you make the sign for switching again?" River thought for a moment but came out blank as well she sighed and said out loud "I do not remember either" It had been two years since they both had a reason to practice and they both where rusty. As always she felt shame when she did not remember a sign as if her mother looked at her from haven with a frown on her face. To keep her mind of her parents she asked something out loud so that she could hear her sisters voice "so how does it feel now miss head-girl? "her sister looked miserable "it still feels really odd, I have only met a few Slytherin as I said earlier but they seemed to almost be afraid of me " the conservation was interrupted when a third year Slytherin boy which River sort of remembered burst into their compartment and with an alarmed tone informed that there was a fight going on. With a last terrified look from the boy, they were away and River was alone again.

Minutes later when she once again had started to fall asleep the door opened again and it was not her sister that but a tall Gryffindor boy, With short black hair and green eyes. He smiled and she was expecting that his simile would falter as he recognizes her, but it didn't. is it okay if I sit here? He asked River nodded in response being weary and he sat down and introduced himself. His presented himself as Aden Hill and he was running the Hogwarts school paper. When he saw Rivers confusion he added "it is something that was started last year and no I am not talking to you to make a scope. I came here to talk to you about some stuff and if I get an opportunity I who like to talk to your sister Viviana. River nodded not completely trusting him but did not think of anything to say except. I only have one sister and call her Vivi she is not found of her full name" "Yes I have been witness to what happens to people that try to tease her about it which is a shame because it a beautiful name" River shrugged agreeing that her sister was being silly but not wanting to talk about it to a stranger. They talked a bit about how the paper had started as something that the death eaters tried to use as a propaganda tool but the creators had been smart enough to use ink that transformed so they could write more meaningfully segments. He was kind enough to go into detail how exactly they had made the enchanted ink when he saw her interest. Finally, he seemed to get serious and with a grim expression he said" I have been talking to the various group about you and unfortunate my suspicions seem to be correct. He took a deep breath before continuing "most of the older students are a bit scared but they have fond memories of lupin and a need to prove that they are not afraid. The problem is that the younger students are terrified and I would not expect them to lose that fear easily." River did not know how to respond and only nodded as she remembered her two incidents.

Both where silent until the door opened again to her sister and she stopped for a second when she saw that they were not alone then she gave him a smile. "So are you two doing an interview ?". Aden smiled back "no just passing on some information to your sister about how the different groups will probably react to her" she nodded and sat down. Aden continued with a grim expression" I also wanted to have the opportunity to talk to you too. This year will be volatile Vivi. Slytherins were ruling the school last year with an iron fist and none of the other houses had forgotten that. If that were enough Voldemort "river shuddered but the other two seemed to be unaffected" declared Slytherins his house and if that were not enough it was the house where most of the Death Eater originated from. So there will be a lot of pent up feelings and it will be turned towards your house and I am sorry to say that you will be the one that will have to handle a lot of it." Vivi nodded with a tired look on her face "one thing before I go. I wanted to ask you if you were the one to wipe away the mess I made in the potion room." She nodded with a not so little bit of smugness. He smiled "that it two times you have saved me and there is also that time you saved my sister." Her smugness vanished "how is she?" she said with concern Aden's good mood seemed gone as well" better" was all he said. Then with another quick smile, he headed out of their compartment.

The rest of the trip went by mostly uneventful there were a couple of times people seemed to go to there compartment on a dare and knocked before dashing off. As they closed into Hogwarts River felt more and more nervous as she was had felt the first time she had gotten there. As if her sister could feel her discomfort she said "do you want to make a bet?" the sudden question jerked River from her dark thoughts "about what?" with a sad smile she said "if Slytherin get half of the new student that they usually do I will buy you a new owl" "you think it will be that bad huh?" "yeh, the old houses that always ended up in Slytherin have collectedly decided to have their kids in Durmstrang and as Aden said you know who did declare Slytherin his house and you know the origin of most death eaters and all that. I am probably the most popular Slytherin and I am probably only going to be tolerated. "but you fought at the battle of Hogwarts" River exploded. Her sister only smiled a tired smile. "Yes there why I am tolerated but to them I am still a Slytherin and they think I was in a position where I never had to fear of being tortured or harmed by the death eaters. "but that is bullshit you where spying for McGonagall the entire time. If they had found out you would not be here " her expression did not change" I did very few things that had a high likely hood of being discovered and even if I had been found out the fact that they had killed my entire family would probably give me some forgives even in their eyes" River did not have a respond to that and felt like the atmosphere had become too dark so it was time to lighten the mood a bit "well if there are any problems you could always threaten to utilize your super werewolf sister with laser eyes and super strength " she gave a genuine smile then turned serious." If you encounter any problem be sure to tell me. "River nodded but though for herself that considering what year awaited her sister she would keep as much as she could for herself.

They arrived at station 30 minutes later. Hagrid was there with his half-giant build and huge black hair and beard with his usual "firs'-years firs'-years here. She headed towards the coaches that would take her to the castle. She recoiled at the sight of the skeleton horse that was dragging the carriages. She had been warned by her sister that the invisible carriage was actually pulled by skeletons horses with some draconic features to their head which could only be viewed by the people that had seen death but it was something that was hard to prepare oneself for. She went and got a cart for herself and her sister. No one seemed to be eager to share with them she saw Aden talking to a couple of younger Gryffindors one being the boy that had run out of her compartment and an older more athletic version of the boy she imagined was his brother. They seemed to in a heated discussion with the word werewolf being the only word she hear until hear sister shut the door and the carts were off to the school.

On the way, she realized she had not asked her sister about the fight. "So how many people did you knock about?" she snorted" no one but a prefect from Ravenclaw came really close. I need to have a talk with Flitwick, so he makes sure that this does not happen again." They arrived at the great hall and She felt a similar nervous tingle as she had the first time she had entered this hall the first time. She still was amazed at how big it was. She noticed that she was the talk of the room as all people seemed to take turn in pointing her out and whispering to their friends. She sat in one of the corners of the Hufflepuff table and as she had feared no one dared to sit next to her, not even her old friends as they tried very hard not to see her she returned the favour. Which hurt more then she thought it would. The reaction seemed to be as Aden had predicted the younger the people was the more frightened they were. With the youngest steering at her in pure terror and some of the older only looking at her with a curious look. Then everything went quiet as the sorting ceremony began. McGonagall was holding the event which was a bit strange as she was now headmistress, but she had done it for a long while and there was something calming in seeing her there. She placed the sorting hat on its stool and the sorting hat came to life and started to sing

"Hogwarts returned from darkness grasps, not without scars not without sacrifice. It is time to once again to be a beacon of learning. To instead of surviving and fight we will once again be a safe haven for young minds to grow and to find themselves….."

River felt like the word safe should have been in quotation marks. She then tuned out a portion of the song as she saw a tall boy with broad shoulders and a blue cap on his head with a perfect mark on his chest from the Ravenclaw table. The reason she noticed him was that he was pointing at her and with a sneer and eyes full of hatred they had stared at each other for a moment. He then turned around and talked to his friends. River guessed with a unpleasant feeling that this was the prefect Vivi had mentioned. One of the people he spoke to was the head boy of Ravenclaw which name she never could remember it was Ne something. There was clearly an argument between them which River though was probably about him fighting Slytherins. Her mind returned to the sorting hat song

Time will lessen the scars even if they never will completely heal. Now is time for new blood to enter this hall. They have four paths before them. For those with bravery in their heart, there is Gryffindor, the clever have Ravenclaw. The ambitious have the house of Slytherin and finely the loyal have Hufflepuff.

There were a brief silence then McGonagall started to read up the name of the first years which seemed to be a lot fewer than normal as Vivi had suspected. The first was Emely Sermons and as the nervous girl put the sorting hat on herself it immediately erupted in Gryffindor and the Gryffindor table exploded in cheers. Then there was a very small little boy and it took a while for the hat to decide this time but it finally said Hufflepuff and she and her entire table erupted in cheers. She reminisced in how her sorting had gone. She remembered fearing that as both her parents where squibs and therefore had no magic, therefore, it had been some terrible mistake and she was to be sent home. It had mattered little that her sister had been accepted in Slytherin she was terrified and almost cried in relief as the sorting hat had started talking on where to put her. She still remembers the words clearly. "well you have intelligence, but I cannot see that you value it highly and I can see cunning from you, but you lack ambition and bravely is not your forte. But most of all I can see that you value loyalty above all else so I think it will be Hufflepuff " she wondered what would happen if she put on the hat again would it still put her in Hufflepuff or had the last two years change her so much that the hat did not recognize her as Hufflepuff anymore.

She was still deep in thought when after another cheering which she was doing on automatic at that point a first-year boy sat close to her but as she locked up and their eyes meet he turned white and quickly made his way away from her. she felt sad and looked toward the Slytherin table and it did not take long finding her sister as she was alone as well. There seemed to be a dampened mood over the table and she realized that there had been no shout of Slytherin from the hat. She looked at the line of students that was almost empty. The cheering dolled as more and more people realized what was going on. The atmosphere charged as the last three students lined up and went through the sorting ceremony. The first one went quickly it did not even finish putting it on before it yelled "Ravenclaw "there were cheers but not as loud as usual as the whole school realized that they were witnessing a historical event as there had never been a house that had zero or even as few as two students in a year. The second student was a short girl and she went with determined steps and after a short while the hat burst out with a "Gryffindor". There were cheering but most people were completely engrossed now as the last student closed in towards the sorting hat. She felt sorry for the poor boy as the entire room was fixated on him. The moment he put on the hat there was complete silence in the room as the people stared intensely and almost as to prank the whole school the sorting hat took a long time to decide and the room was quieter then River had ever seen it with half as many students. Then after what felt like forever it shouted "Gryffindor" and the Gryffindor started to cheer but they were not as vigorously as usual and the poor boy ran to his table.

Then the entire room exploded in chatter as they all began to digest what just happened. The Slytherin looked devastated and several of the people she could see where smirking at them. She looked at the perfect and he had a smile that made River shiver, the head boy expression, on the other hand, was blank. She looked at Eden and he seemed to be deep in thought. River took a lock at the teacher table and no one there was looking happy. McGonagall's face was unreadable. The one that looked the most down was an overweight man she recognized as Slughorn from her sister's description. But everyone soon went quite a Headmistress McGonagall stood up and with no hint that anything extraordinary had happened, she began her speech. "for our new student we extend a welcome and for a returning student welcome back. As always, the forbidden forest is as the name suggest forbidden and we have some students that will require time to adjust back into the student life and I feel like I shouldn't have to tell you that you should treat them with respect." Several eyes looked at her as she felt herself blush. McGonagall continued without pause as you might have noticed we have renamed the subject of defence against the dark art to magic defence this is the temporary name and are subject to change. With that have the pleasure of introducing professor Mcknight and Ramos. Mcknight a tall lean man that reminded of minister Kinsley and Ramos was a short woman in her sixties with a grey hair in a bun. "They will take over defence and transfiguration respectively let eat" the food emerged and all the excitement drained out of River as the food looked and smelled delicious. There where pies, bred, pumpkin juice and several other things River missed. it smelled delicious and it made her feel down as she knew that it whole taste like nothing. She took only the healthy as when the sense of taste was gone what was the point in eating unhealthy. There was a bunch of conservations, but she was isolated from all of them. She could guess what they were talking about there could not be any other topic except the historical event that had just taken place. There were some that looked at her but they quickly looked the away when she turned towards them. She ate in solitude and when the first people left the great hall she followed them. She felt like a stalker but fortunately, there destination was not far from the great hall. She held a respectful distance but they still looked back with fear. They arrived at an old armour with a shield that had a flower pattern and if you looked closely you could see a small Hufflepuff symbol in the hilt of the sword and with a light tap, it came to life. "Password," it asked in the familiar mix of female and male voices. She heard the person in front say Trenrela and she repeated it for herself until she was sure that she would remember it. The wall swung opened and with keeping the distance she entered the Hufflepuff common room.

The Hufflepuff common room was as she remembered it a big rectangular room with two fireplaces in the opposite corners of the room. The doors that led to the bedrooms and bathrooms were opposite side of the door to the rest of the castle. There was a large metal door a bit away from the other doors that looked like it could take a grandee and not even flinch or in this case hold a werewolf. She could guess who was going to live there. The door was probably more for show than anything as the same results could be made with spells. This was not made for her she thought bitterly it was so the others would feel safe. She felt shame for how angry she felt that the other was afraid of her. Had she not been exactly as bad when she had found out that professor Lubin had been a werewolf. Still to her defence she was only a little child and did not know any better. But to the defence of a lot of her fellow students so where they. That thought that failed to improve her mood. She opened the door and there where a staircase leading down. She descended the stairs feeling both down that she was separated from the other as well as relieved that she could avoid the awkward of sleeping with the others. The stairs descended about twenty meters before ending in another door this one a bit less sturdy. Behind the door was another common room with a fireplace , two armchairs and with a table between the armchairs. On the opposite wall of the door she could see the bathroom door. It was small compared to the Hufflepuffs common room, but it still had a homey feel. There were two doors that had nameplates on them. She went to the door that had her name on it she open it. She had expected it to lock like her old cage with maybe a softer bed. But instead what met her was a brightly lit room with a big bed, a wardrobe, desk, chair, and a mirror. She saw that all the furniture could be retracted into the wall which meant that even if she were to go wolf here, she could protect the furniture by retracting them into the wall. Her stuff was in her trunk by the bed and the room felt warm and welcoming. It was perfect, the door even had a lock on the inside so she could look herself in on the full moon but she knew that they already had other arrangements for that. She sat down warily in her armchair, She felt like going back to Hogwarts had been a bad idea. She knew that she most likely bullied and that she would likely never be excepted. She was just lucky that Lupin had been there before her as he had been on the school for seven years without anything happening. Even if he had been a werewolf incognito. He was still a hero that died when he helped the defenders beat him who must not be named. But she was not and even if her mind had expected bad treatment, She realised that she been under the delusion that lupin somehow would have cured people of their fear of werewolf and that her old friends would easily overcome that fear and still be her friend. She chastise herself as if they had done that they would had written a letter at least doing the last two months. She had almost fallen asleep in the chair when there where a knock on the door which took her out of her half-asleep state yet again.

She hurried to sit up straight as McGonagall strode in with a girl from Ravenclaw. Which surprised River even more than the headmistress coming to visit. She looked at the girl that she guessed was in her third or the fourth year. she had long black hair with blond highlights. She was looking down and River had a hard time seeing her eyes. She felt a strange nervousness which she could not place where it came from as well as a feeling of discomfort. McGonagall said in her usual firm tone "I was going to grab you after the feast but you ended it earlier than expected" there were no accusation in her tone but she still felt an urge to explain herself but McGonagall did do not give her the opportunity " so we will just do the introductions here. Meat Rosie Myers she will be living across the hall from you so you to will be sort of roommates. And miss Myers this is River Blackwell" River nodded and she looked up with emerald green eyes and to her surprise, she did not see as much fear as the fellow students. She seemed more curious than anything else. "You a probably wondering why I brought a Ravenclaw to the Hufflepuff common room". River nodded "Miss Myers has undergone a different experiment to yours that involved in making people able to read and affect minds. It was somewhat successful in her case. She can feel others emotions and some of their thoughts and she also has the unfortunate side effect of projecting her emotion to others if she is not very careful. The effect which you are experiencing now. She felt a wave of embarrassment that got worse as Rosie realized that she had sent it out.

McGonagall continued seemingly unaffected" the reason she is here is that when she can normally keep the mind probing to a minimum when she is asleep she loses control. This is the only place where she can be isolated as the chambers here are apart from the castle in some manner." The nervousness had started to dim McGonagall continued with a tired look "We have tried to make it as good as possible for you both here but I afraid that you still will get hardship from both the other students as well as parents. But let me assure you that you both belong here whatever anybody else tries to tell you" River almost chokes up "thank you headmistress" she managed to get out. McGonagall gave them a tired smile" Do not thank me yet. I have not been able to quell people fears that much yet and I will need both of you to make sacrifices to calm them down somewhat." "One more thing Myers is mute so there will be some difficulties in communication" River felt a rush of excitement as she used sign language to say, "hi how are you feeling?". Rose eyes widen in surprise and she almost trembling replied with "hi I feel good you?" River felt her relief stronger than any emotion so far. She was going to respond with good but change her mind "awful I feel rely nervous at starting the year" the girl smiled "I lied I also feel awful" McGonagall looked at both of them a genuine smile on her lips" Well I think that will be all for today we will talk later when your visits to St Mungo are going to happen and I will speak to Blackwell tomorrow how we will handle the full moon" They both nodded. She turned and walked out leaving them alone.

It was a strange situation as both were relieved to have someone to talk to that did not look at them with horror but both were tired and had things they did not want to talk about. They did not compare experiment stories or talk about how it was to be a werewolf or what Rosie was. Not that River was not curious about her roommate's past but as she was not ready to give answers to the little of her past she could remember. She could not ask it of Rosie to answer that kind of questions. Their talk lasted only a short while. They spoke of how River knew sign language and she only said that her mother had been deaf and mute so they learned it to be able to communicate with her. River learned that her new friend was muggle born which might explain her lack of fear as they had not heard stories of the werewolf as they grew up. Her being muggle born also explain why she was experimented on. River got the pleasant news that Rosie was taking the third year over as she missed the entire last year so they were in the same year. With a much lighter heart, they said goodnight and went to bed. She checked the time to make sure that she would not need another dose of dreamless potion before she went to sleep and decided that it would be fine. It did not take long for sleep to arrive for her at last.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Transformation

When she awoke she felt refreshed. After she had dressed and put on her gloves she realized that she had not even looked at her timetable. she did it with some trepidation and let out a sigh when she saw that her first lesson was transfiguration which had always been her worst subject. After Transfiguration, there was a lull as she had Defense which she had been mediocre at. Last for today she had a double lesson of Potion. Her second worst subject and the only subject she had disliked. She hoped that what her sister had said about Professor Slughorn was correct and that he was kinder than their old potion master. She paused in their common room to look for Rosie when she could not see her and her door was closed she decided to head to breakfast by herself. When she arrived at the main common room all conservation sized and they stared at her as she made her way to the fake wall. She pushed the red tile in the wall and it swung open she stepped out and heeded to the great hall. River ate her breakfast in solitude. When Rosie arrived she after some hesitation went to the Ravenclaw table which made sense but made River feel alone.

When she had finished eating she headed to her first lesson after picking up her school supplies. She arrived a bit too early, so she had to wait for everyone to arrive. She was going to have the same timetable as the Ravenclaw this semester. Rosie arrived a more dignified five minutes early they nodded at each other. She wanted to talk to her but considering that she had her hands full it would be impossible for her to reply without putting everything down. Which River was reluctant to make her do.

They waited for about a minute then she heard the noise of many footsteps and the rest of the class arrived with the professor in front. Her heart sank as with the entire class it made it clear how big difference in height there was between them and her. She had always been tall for her age and there was now a two-year gap between them.

She was briefly puzzled by their behaviour as it was weird to arrive as a group to the first lesson of the day. The inclusion of the professor in all of this was even more bizarre. She then noticed how terrified they were and her puzzlement of why they had arrived as a group vanished. She even saw some of them hold hands to give each other strength. It was almost comical, but River felt numbing sadness as they arrived close she tied to make herself look as harmless as possible. She did not seem to succeed as even the teacher gave her a frightened look before masking it with a forced smile and a nod. She waited for the entire group to pass until she and Rosie entered.

The first lesson where an introduction and with no practical component she had not had to try her ability that day. The teacher tried to hide her discomfort with her but did not manage it which did not help the mood of the rest of the class. They seemed to have a hard time following which was not helped by the professor forgetting where she was when River did any kind of motion. Rosie was greatly affected as she had to fell all the other student's emotions. She was restless and without meaning to she amplified the bad mood in the class. It made it hard for River to sit still and try to look unthreatening. When the class ended there was almost a stampede as the rest of the class bolted to the door.

The following lesson in Defence where a similar trying experience as the nervousness of her classmates had not dissipated. Professor Mcknight was hard to read and River was unsure what he felt for her. The lesson was an introduction to the theme of the coming lessons. The theme was magical creatures and fire. The idea was to first learn how different creatures reacted to fire than to learn a rather simple jinx that would create a warm illusionary fire for a brief period in which they could hopefully escape. The benefits of the spell were that it had no chance to create an unstoppable inferno with the weakness that it did not hurt the opponent. Rosie managed to have better control this time and without the teacher being visible afraid of her the edge of her classmates' fear seemed diminish slightly toward the end of the lesson. Rosie was in a thoughtful mood as they headed to lunch. When they arrived at their common room to put away their school supplies River asked Rosie" what did you feel from the professor?" She feared Rosie answer but she had to ask. Rosie was motionless for a bit before hesitantly gesturing" he seemed" she faltered "He probably needs more time" Rosie looked so uncomfortable River decided not to press her.

The time from their departure from the common room until she was seated in the dungeon classroom was filed with a weird sense of dread. She had been terrified of Professor Snape

And she had always dreaded the time she had to spend in the dungeon. It was weird that even after all she had been through she was still felt uneasy about the dungeon. Rosie meat her unease with a questioning look which she ignored. The dungeon was not as River remembered it but what was the change the potion master had done and what was her bad memories from the past she was unsure of. The potion master looked the class with a big smile that did not falter when he looked at them. They took a table that River was certain that they would have for themselves.

Her classmates arrived in pairs or small groups. "So class today we will start with a bit of refreshment of what we did last year as it was a time which most of us had a lot else to think about" Slughorn said with a humorous tone. River had spent the last two months revisiting so she had it fresh in her mind but Slughorn was interesting to listen to and he took out his wand and had the potion he discussed fly around the room so that everyone got to see them. As the lesson went on the class started to relax and towards the end they seemed to have forgotten her. The class ended with River feeling a bit more optimistic that everything would be okay. When she went back to her room for the day she collapsed in her bed feeling exhausted.

Before she was able to muster enough will to rise again, she heard a knock on her door and in came McGonagall. River stood up as they extended greetings River offered her the chair and the headmistress expected it. When the headmistress had taken her place McGonagall asked in her usual firm tone "So Blackwell how did your first school day go?" she thought for a second before answering "Better than I expected worse then I hoped" McGonagall nodded then said, "There has been a change to your transformation routine. You will be in the camp four days starting from the day before the transformation." River looked at her a bit confused. She wanted to say that she only transformed once doing the full moon but she knew that the McGonagall knew that so she just looked at her. McGonagall said in a tired voice "I know I know this is ridiculous and there should be enough to get you there on the day of the transformation. But people are so stubborn and this is how far I have been able to push at the moment. The reason I needed to wait to tell you this was that they wanted you to stay there for five days two before and two after and i was unsure if I could get them to reduce them." River nodded. McGonagall continued so "we will prepare extra homework for you as a way to compensate for the lost time" River felt relieved and nervous about extra homework. They spoke a bit more about the exact arrangement then she left.. She felt tired and decided to go to bed early. She was drifting to sleep than with a sudden jolt she realized she had not taken her potion. She was suddenly very awake as the thought of nightmares she had almost fallen into rattled her. She cursed herself as she still did not have any system to make sure she had taken the potion. She shuddered when she remembered the last time she had forgotten and vowed to find a way to remember. She went to her potion box which held thirty dreamless potions and she drank one of them. She knew that it would take her a moment to sleep after that so she took the time to do some homework until she felt that she felt sleepy again then went back to sleep.

The next day her classmates were a bit calmer if it was that she had not killed them yet or that the old teachers did not seem to mind her in the slightest she was unsure of. She was afraid to ask Rosie what the old professors felt towards her as it would have been a big blow to her if they secretly feared her. The closer the day to her transformation came the more nervous and frighten people became. This greatly affected Rosie as she had to feel the stress and anxiety constantly. She started to glare at people which did not help their anxiety. On a couple of occasions, she lost control and sent a wave of anger and frustration that everyone within fifty meters could feel which did not help. Two days before the transformation several people looked at her with an expression of pure terror then taking out something out of their pocket before relaxing. She assumed it was some sort of lunar calendar so that people would know when she was going to go wolf. The third time it happened Rosie sent a thought of pure anger at the poor fourth year Gryffindor boy. She saw him became furious for a second than when the thought left him he looked at Rosie with a terrified expression before he fled.

The day River would leave she felt extreme relief that she would be away for a couple of days. She had not even been back to Hogwarts for a full week but she felt wary already. The breakfast and lunch that day was a trial for Rosie as their fellow student's anxiety reached new heights. She desperately hoped that people would relax in her absent so that Rosie would get some rest River waved Rosie goodbye in their privet common room and. She hefted her bag on her shoulder and with trepidation made her way to the normal common room.

When she arrived at the normal common room it seemed that the entire Hufflepuff house was there. They stood still in a half circle around her and stared at her intently. She momentary freeze holding the door opened not wanting to go further. She got a sudden urge to go back to her room and hide. It was not until her gaze meet the headmistress McGonagall and Slughorn in the middle of the half circle that she felt that she could move again.

River was glad that Rosie was not here as the fear and anxiety she saw in the faces of the students would be torture to her. They were here to see with their own eyes that she was gone so that they could sleep tonight. McGonagall looked as stern as ever and looked around displeased with them. Slughorn too did not seem to be happy with her fellow students.

The half circle opened and let her and McGonagall pass. They headed out from the common room and the students follow them. She felt like a prisoner heading to her execution. When they arrived at the great hall the rest of the houses joined them as they headed toward the outside of the castle.

She felt awful she knew that all the securities details were not there because the teachers thought that she was going to run. They were there so that people would feel safer and it was one of the reasons she was even able to attend Hogwarts. It still felt like she had done something wrong and it filled her with shame. She tried to conceal it and hold her head high.

Almost all the students had the same fearful stare as if they looked away for a second she would transform and eat them. There was one main exemption the Ravenclaw prefect. His face was contorted in hatred and his hands were fists. When they locked eyes for a second she halted for a moment before quickly catching up to her escorts. She felt a shiver down her spine and wondered if a werewolf had killed someone he cared about. An unfortunately not too uncommon story.

Then she heard an argument and turned to see the head boy of Ravenclaw arguing with the prefect. It was impossible to hear what they were arguing about but it seemed like the head boy won as the prefect drooped slightly and with not even a glance back at her as they left.

They headed to the castle grounds where it seemed that the rest of the castle living population waited for them. The people behind her filed in so that she felt completely trapped. She forced herself to look like this was not bothering her even if the only thing she wanted right now was to hide. They all looked at her as he would transform at any moment. There where tension as the headmistress took out a single normal looking brown shoe. The headmistress moved it so that River and Slughorn could touch it. She felt silly as there were about five minutes until they were going to leave. She touched it and felt her nervousness for what was going to happened damped her awareness of the people around her. This was her first time using a portkey. This was even a unique one that was reusable to the extent that normal portkeys were not. She heard McGonagall countdown to zero and then she drew in a lase. then she felt a pull from her stomach as she fell forwards. There was suddenly a lot of wind as she, McGonagall and Slughorn were transported. Her hand felt like it was glued in placed and just as suddenly they arrived and she fell and hit the ground. She did not hit the ground hard but she felt the wind go out of her. She just lied still for a moment when she looked up she saw that McGonagall and Slughorn seemed fine if a bit windswept.

They had arrived at a huge clearing in a dense forest. McGonagall surveyed the trees then went toward a gigantic oak on the other side of the clearing. Slughorn helped River to her feet as McGonagall taped the oak with her wand and muttered something. River gasped as a gigantic concrete wall appeared in front of her with an imposing gate of black stone just a couple of steps away from her. It took her a moment to realize that it had already been there and was just now that they were able to see it. McGonagall knocked on the gate and after giving it a password that River did not manage to overhear the gate opened wide.

The area inside the gate was huge. The view was dominated by a big two-story building of the same black stone as the gate on the top of a hill. When she looked around she could see two groups of ten of identical large cottages. The cottages had bright red walls and a black slanting roof with a chimney. She could see a roof on the other side of the hill indicating that there were even more cottages. She was temporally stunned as she realized that she had all this for herself. When they had talked about a camp she had not envisioned that it would be something this huge.

When she came back to herself she saw that Slughorn looked pleased with her expression and McGonagall looked at her patiently. River blushed slightly before asking "what is this place?" McGonagall was the one to respond "this was a top-secret ministry refuge that Scrimgeour had built before his death. unfortunately, his plan to fill this refuge was cut short with the takeover of the ministry so that only half of the cottages were filed. He managed to keep it hidden from the rest of the world so that neither we or the Deateters cold find this place." The cottage they entered was the only one with a tiny difference and that was a sign with her name on it.

inside of the cottage was a table with four chairs, a sofa, a comfy looking bed, a fireplace of red bricks, a wardrobe a big mirror as well a trunk to put her things in. There was even to her surprise a door to a bathroom. It was far grander then anything she had expected.

She saw a potion on the table and with a smile recognized wolfsbane. It affected the best inside her so that she could control herself when she transformed.

She put down the bag on a stool and turned as McGonagall said "You are free to use all the facilities here. The central building is where your food is prepared and you are free to take anything from the fruit garden on the other side of the hill. We will be going after we see that you have drunk the potion is there anything you want of us before we leave. "no headmistress" She drank her potion and was glad that she was unable to taste the potion. When she looked up McGonagall gave her a sad expression "I am again so sorry we need to do this ridiculous circus " River tried to give her a reassuring smile and responded with " I can understand their fear" there was a moment of awkward silence before McGonagall said with her usual stern expression back in place "see you the day after the transformation" then both she and Slughorn went out and closed the door behind them.

She started by putting away her extra cloth and other things she had decided to take with her. When that was finished she figured it was just as well to start her homework now before the transformation robed her of all her strength. Even if she wanted to do anything except her homework right now.

She worked until she felt hungry and then she went to the central building. Inside was what looked like a muggle school cafeteria. She went to the kitchen and opened one of the freezers with had her name on it. There where instructions on how to heat up the food and what she would too after she had eaten it. Inside was a lot of food boxes with glass lids with labels for dinner, lunch, and breakfast. She took one with hamburgers then went to the dining era and with a press on a button the food heated itself. After dislodging the fork and knife from the lid and ate. She hoped nobody had gone through too much effort to make it tasty as it would have been a waste. When she was finished tidied after herself. The silence and complete isolation were already starting to unnerve her the spacious area seemed to amplify that sense. She went back to her cabin and continued to do her homework. When she felt too bored with the homework she went to bed.

She woke up early the next day and completed her homework and then was bored again. She decided to explore her new world. First she went to the gardens which were on the other side of the camp. There she saw several rows of fruit trees she knew as well as some that she did not recognize. There was also a section that was walled in that had a potion ingredient sign on the gate leading into it.

Then she went to the big house to explore it completely. On the first floor except for the cafeteria and the kitchen, there were also several meeting rooms, showers and to Rivers surprise even baths as well as a sauna. It woke a memory from when her family had taken a trip to Sweden. After her melancholy had passed she went to the second floor. There she found a library as well as a board game room. The rest of the rooms were locked and River decided not to even try to unlock them until she could ask McGonagall about them. The library was divided into section and under the charm section, she found an interesting book called odd charms. She was browsing the different charms when she saw a charm for extra physical strength and she felt intrigued by it. She knew that It was not a wise to charm oneself with a new charm when you were not sure if you could pull it off and with no one to patch you up if you mess up. Then she rationalised that the charm did not seem to be too far from her skill level and there was a full moon today which would remove anything she did to herself. It was still not a wise move but she decided to try it. She went outside to be sure that if she did something that would prevent her from moving she would transform as fast as possible. She spent some time on dry runs with a stick. When she was sure she had it nailed she took a deep breath and cast the charm. She felt the tingling sensation that signified that some part of her spell had gone right. Her apparent success made her feel a bit smug then she felt her limbs loss strength and she sat down before she could collapse. Then as fast as her strength had left her it returned. Feeling a bit embarrassed but not dejected she tried again this time nothing happened. On the fifth try, she finally felt a bit stronger. It took her almost to dinner time to finally be able to make it last for a minute. There was a charm that would make it last even longer and one that would protect her limbs and bones from the strain. But they had to wait for another time. She back to the central building to eat. Then she returned to her cottage to await her transformation.

The waiting was hard on her as she wanted to avoid being a wolf for as long as possible and she hated the wait. It was at this moment she realized to her annoyance that there was no clock in the cabin. She tried to read the odd charms book she had borrowed from the library but eventually she gave into her impatience and she did not want to accidentally fall asleep and have the transformation wake her up. There were two windows in the cabin that was streaming in the moonlight. An irrational part of her still felt like if she avoided the moonlight she would not transform but she knew It would just delay it. A simple solution then would just to avoid moonlight for one day every month which not hard to do. She stripped off her clothes to protect them and with a deep breath, she crawled unto all fours to save herself of some small amount of pain if she fell over doing the transformation. She braced herself from the insane amount of pain she knew was coming. With a last deep breath, she stepped into the light and looked at the moon.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The pain she felt was familiar but impossible to get used to. It coursed through her entire body and it became her world it was at this moment that she would have lost control. Leaving the best lin charge but thanks to the wolfbane she could remaining herself. She still felt it awaken from its month slumber. She did not know if it was something that her mind made up to process what was happening to her or if there was another being inside her. No book about werewolf's spoke about it and she never had the opportunity to ask another werewolf about it.

When she was aware of the world again she was panting on the floor in a wolf's body. Went up on all fours and she realized that she never had seen herself as a wolf. She felt her curiosity battle with worry as she looked towards the mirror examine and was shocked at her appearance.

She was a normal-sized wolf with grey fur. The scales that she usually hid with her clothes and makeup were on full display. The effect of the scales and the lack of fur on those parts made her look ill. It felt weird that she felt uncomfortable with being a weird looking wolf werewolf. Her eye was still the same as they had been when she was human. Her discomfort was soon almost swept away with an almost irresistible urge to howl but she did manage to resist from doing it. Until she remembered that she was alone and no one would hear her. she then let out a howl. It felt great as she let out a great howl and with the urge to howl subsiding the urge to kill came more clearly but thanks to the potion those urges did not take a mind of their own. She felt restless but the door was locked and there was nothing for her to do so she decided to sleep.

She went to the bed and jumped into it there was no need for her to even attempt to take a blanked as the fur she had made her warm. She tried to sleep even if she knew that it was almost impossible as the beast ensured she would stay up for a long time.

She thought of things she would ask for when she returned to the castle. Something that she would not experience this boredom of being a wolf and uncertainty of when she would transform. she finally decided to ask for the door to her cabin be opened so that she could take a run and a clock so that she wold can tell the time. After a long time she finally drifted off to sleep.

She awoke to the familiar mind-numbing pain of transforming back. She was silent for a moment before her body gave her back control and she screamed rolling over and falling outside the bed. At the same time, she could feel the beast return to its slumber.

Then as it resided she felt the sickness and fatigue wash over her and she had just the strength to get back into her bed before she collapsed. She welcomed the pain and the fatigue as it reminded her that she had not bitten anyone last night. She fell asleep again.

She woke up when her door opened and in came Headmistress McGonagall and Madam Pomphrey as well as her sister walking behind them. She rose unsteadily to her feet and before she realized she was naked and took the blanket as cover. She looked at them for any signs of what they were thinking. Their expressions were natural McGonagall said " my apologies to disturb you but Madam Pomfrey which to have the cheek up as soon as possible " she had a vague memory of the mention of a check-up. She was instructed to sit on a chair and Madam Pomfrey started to prod and examine her. She did not flinch at the sight of her patches of green snake scale as the nature of Hogwarts she probably saw them as mundane. The same could be said of her scars as she had a simply noted them and passed on. The first scar on her right leg had been made by Greyback as he turned her into a werewolf. The other was a mystery it was placed on her back and had a spiral pattered and she could not remember how she had gotten it. The only time there was even a hint of disturbance was when she lastly examed her left arm. It was really disturbing to River herself. The arm was still even when she was human covered in wolf fear except for a couple of patches of green scales. But the truly disturbing fact was her left hand as it was a mix of a hand and a paw, the combination was such that it did not impede her hand movement too much and was the reason she always wore gloves. When she was done she stepped back and with a relieved smile. Madam Pomfrey nodded at the headmistress which returned the nod. Her sister stepped forwards and she and Madam Pomfrey started to talk about different methods that they could use to hide her scales in her face and the best way to remove the heir from her left arm. Everything was too far over Rivers' head and she started to tune out and she almost fell asleep.

Her daydreaming was cut short as her sister said "let me borrow your hand" as she started replying a familiar cold feeling slipped through her arm as her sister drew her wand along it and her heir on her arm fell loose. Then she applied the gel that mimics her skin color and covered her scales and her grey skin on her left arm. Lastly, she trimmed her claws and with an anti-growing charm to ensure that they would not grow until the charm was broken at the next full moon.

She looked in the mirror and satisfied that her arm was free from fur and looked almost normal. She felt a wave of fatigue wash over her and struggled a bit not falling over and past out. She tied to hide it but failed as both women looked at her concerned. "it looks like we have pushed you a bit far you need to get some rest." Her sister came over and put an arm on her shoulder and said " I will come back later and then we can talk more " Madam Pomfrey said in a calm voice, "here is your dreamless potion" she devoured it and fell asleep a fast as the other women had helped her back to her bed. She did not even hear the door closing.

She awoke several hours later still feeling ill. She saw that someone had left breakfast for her and made her way to the table .thinking it would be cold but to her surprise, it was still was still warm. She forced herself to and eat. There where breed and carrots and orange juice. Everything looked delicious and she felt the familiar longing for their taste.

She wondered what she was going to do now. She could go back to sleep but it would do little to improve her condition as it would take time. She could read a book but she knew she would have a hard time understanding anything. She had always hated being sick and this was worse in the sense that you knew that it would all happen again next month. She could not help to remember one of the things that her captors had discovered was a potion that speeds up the recovery time and dampens nausea and fatigue after a transformation.

Unfortunately that and the rest of their research had all gone missing with the remnants of the scientist. She wanted that potion very bad right now even if it had been developed on the back of her and people like her as they experimented their way forward.

She went back to sleep to be awakened sometime later by a knock she hefted herself up and took on her clothes and gloves. It was her sister. She smiled as the smaller girl went inside. Then she notices that she was limping slightly. "What happened," she said in a more aggressive voice then she had intended. Her sister tried to look innocent but for once she did deem to fail and River could see how tired she was. "well someone took a prank a little too far and a classmate and I got a free ticket to the hospital wing and professor Flitwick is furious". She looked at her with suspicion "what are you not telling me and why are you so tired we have not even been here a week" she sighted "do not remind me. I am losing my touch if even you can see through me. I was in the crossfire of two pranks and the result will take some time to heal. my biggest headache Is keeping Slytherin from retaliating or the conflict would keep escalating. We will just have to sit and take it." well anyway how are you feeling? " "good I was thinking of eating lunch " her sister frowned " But is after five " "oh" she had lost track of time which usually happened after a transformation. "well I broth you something as it though that this might happen " she took outbreed water and butter. "you are the best" she ate when her sister spoke of how her brief time as head girl had been and River was happy that she was not in that position.

Then it was her turn to tell her sister of what had transpired since she had started. " Well, it good that you can make a friend. Your old crew is giving you the cold shoulder huh. " River nodded feeling sadness at the mention of them".. well," her sister said after they were done talking I would love to say longer but duty awaits she nodded and she headed outside. The next day she started to feel a bit better and when Slughorn came to get her she was able to walk to the clearing by herself. She addressed her request and got a okay for the clock and a decline on having the door opened. As it was one of the security aspects that was unfortunately mandatory. When she returned the students slowly got used to her somewhat People still stared but it was less intently and to Rosies great relief they were a lot less . She ate alone again and then headed to her first lesson was Defense. she met up with Rosie outside the classroom and they headed inside. Their assignment was Boggart,. River thought they were fascinating creatures able to mimic people's worst fears. Something weird happened when it was her turn. The boggart did not manifest a form but was an unformed mass trying to shift into something but could not access that part of her memory. The atmosphere was not completely calm but it was tolerable this lasted two weeks until one morning as they headed to their lesson in Herbology when they heard a strange sound like windchimes with some sort of strange melody. They headed carefully to where the sound. When they there was already a lot of people gathered there. On the same place that the message of the chamber of secrets has opened were a completely new massage We will not forget we will not forgive. No more Slytherin. Underneath the message were Snakes that had been lit a flame and they were in agony. Above the message there was a symbol. it was the Hogwarts crest but instead of a Slytherin crest there was a miniature of the same crest. The professors came shortly after River and Rosie had arrived and asked anyone if they had seen the culprits and when no one came forwards they dismissed everyone back to their classes. They had silent conservation using sign-language during the class which were one of the advantages as professor sprout did not know that they were not talking about their plant. Rosie had noticed a suspicious Hufflepuff and thought that he was probably the culprit. As She had noted his emotions compared to the others as well as gotten some snippets from his mind. Still, no one had gotten hurt and they had no real proof so both decided that they were not going to say anything. Still, the message made River feel hollow inside as it made clear that this was not the end for them and it implied that they wanted revenge. The general census over the next couple of days was that many supported it as most people had suffered at the hands of Slytherin and the fact that many did it out of fear did not seem to matter to them. All they saw was the evil acts and many did not even hesitate to state their opinions aloud. The teachers were unable to stop it. The newspaper had a field day interviewing people and even had a picture of the massage on the front page. Something told River that things were just beginning to get ugly.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Escalation

The calm lasted until the time for her second transformation grew relatively close. The same effect that her last transformation had on the school was in full force this time again. There where less of the fearful looks and there where even some nods. Rosie seemed to be in a better mood as she could not feel everyone's fear. Everyone seemed to be more and more nervous as the time went on until they were back to the start of the school year.

One day River and Rosie were walking towards dinner when Rosie suddenly stopped and bolted away from the classroom. River was confused for a second and stood still for almost half a minute. Then she tore after her. She was faster than Rosie, but with the headstart, it took a bit to catch up. It was not until Rosie slowed down River was able to catch up completely.

There was a muffled sound from a nearby lecture hall. She opened the lecture hall, out came a vail of pain and a smell of burned flesh. She followed Rosie inside d the lecture hall on the floor where a short blond Slytherin girl that was clutching her right leg. Then she saw the smoke coming out of her that leg and recoiled. Rosie had stopped moving and held her head between her hands like she had a headache. River felt like she needed to do something "get Ponfrei. I will stay here" and helped Rosie out of the room. When she arrived outside the lecture hall, she seemed almost instantly to recover and started to run towards the hospital wing.

River went to the girl's side, and she still had not acknowledged her existence and was whimpering in pain. River looked at her leg, and she took a step back her leg was covered horrible black burn marks that seemed to be glowing with a red sheen from time to time.

She took the girl's hand and started to speak and forced her voice to be calm. She did even think about what to say just that her voice did not betray her discomfort. After a while, she realized that there was something on the wall; it was the familiar symbol made out of burning red yellow and blue flames, and under it was written Slytherin no more. She felt rage build up inside and wanted to run and try to find whoever had done this, but she supposed that they were longe gone and her chance of seeing them in a random search was zero.

Instead, she held the girl's hand as she whimpered in pain. She felt so helpless. She sat and patted the girl's hand, and she was getting worse and worse. About ten minutes, her leg had gone from black to purple, and her breathing had started to become strained.

River started to panic as the helpless began to be too much for her, and she started racking her brain for things she could do. She even began to go through the few things she had learned as a captive to see I there was anything she could do to help her. There where two things that she could do that might be able to help her. The first was a charm that would slow down the girl's body, but it was made to slow down the effects of poison, so she was doubtful that it would have any effect. The second was more complicated and could be catastrophic if she did it wrong, but she was sure that it would at least stop the pain.

Before she could do anything stupid, she heard running in the corridor and in came Rosie and a heavy breathing Madam Pomfrey. She ran to the girl's side and hunkered down and examed her leg while muttering to herself. Madam Pomfrey pointed her wand to the wound, and the girls breathing became more regular. Then she made the girl levitate and started to move out of the lecture hall. "Let talk on the way to the hospital wing." Madam Pomfrey said

The explanation did not take long and at the mention of Rosie's ability to sense pain. Madam Pomfrey looked impressed and said, "I did not think that it had that longe range" she seemed to be in deep thought and had not noticed that they both had stopped talking until they had almost reached the hospital wing before she looked at them with first a bit confused than embarrassed. "Yes, of course, you can go now, there might be a couple of questions later, but for now, you should go and continue whatever you were doing." She nodded at the girls and walked away. They looked at each other, Rosie shrugged, and they made their way back to their lesson.

The following couple of days were weird for Rosie and River. News of what had happened spread quickly. Even the Hogwarts post did a special issue centered on what little they knew about the perpetrators and to fill pace, they also had people's favorite pranks.

Both Rosie and River was in the limelight again, but people were still terrified of River, and they could not communicate easily with Rosie, which created a weird stand of where groups tried to get individuals to go and ask them questions but them refusing. Sometimes they even manage to convince them, and they made it right next to them when their courage fails them, and they walked away. It took three days before a third-year finally dared to ask them questions. He looked at the ground, and he looked like he was going to bolt at any second. She recounted the event exactly as they had happened with removing the whimpering and the smell. The boy went away from that conservation discontent.

If it was the story that was a disappointment or if it was the big bad werewolf was not as scary as she was supposed to be, it was hard to tell. After that, the interest in the reduced down to the occasional glare and panicked look if they did not notice her coming near them.

The consensus was that this was a prank gone wrong and that Slytherin had done much worse last year. This attitude was also with the newspaper. Even if they had a hard time, specifying what this girl had done that was so extreme that it warranted that. The girl's name was Mya West, and she was in the room practicing as she always did with two other Slytherin girls. The curse had made it so that she could not use her left leg to support herself, and she had to use crickets. At least Madam Ponfrei was able to make it pain-free.

A week after the boy dared to ask her, people finely started to lose interest in her and things went back to normal.

The Monday before her transformation, she arrived at breakfast. It began with a few people steering at her in a manner that was akin to their reaction was when she first arrived. Before she even had time to sit down, Rosie came to her from the Ravenclaw table with a daily profit. Her rage, where evident, and River could feel her anger bubbling in response with hers. The effect on those around them was palpable as they started to argue among themselves. Rosie gave River the daily profit read the title with shaking hands. "The freaks of Hogwarts discover an incident." she stared at the title in disbelief. The author was Chase Fox. Someone she had never heard about probably was a synonym.

The first part was a summary of what had happened, and the little about the perpetrator was known. It was short, so they had filled the article with an interview from several students. She wondered how they had done the interview. Her first instinct was that it had been done by mail then realized there had been a Hogsmed last weekend, so that was probably the moment when they had done the interview.

With a lot of trepidation, She read what the other students' accounts.

"They freak me out. I know that we are supposed to tolerate her because of what lupin did. But I think it is wrong to put everyone in danger because of one good werewolf. It will probably work with one werewolf, but if they increase the number eventually something will go wrong and put the entire school in danger."

The second did not feature River but was instead feature Rosie "I think it is wrong that she is allowed to be here she shode be in St Mungo and receive treatment. We have the right to have our thoughts for ourselves. It is the greatest form of breach of privacy. She does not even have to be actively tying and still get our deepest secrets. If that were not enough, she forces her emotion on other people, and the teachers expect to accept that, "

The last interview was where they got their title from "we call them the freaks of Hogwarts and the place where they sleep the freaks dungeon. I am conflicted about them. On the one hand, they suffered a lot doing Voldemort rain" River flinch as she read his name. "but I think that it be safer for us students if they were getting their education from somewhere else."

She looks at Rosie and surprising herself by managing to have a calm voice. "does everyone think of us as the freaks?" Rosie hesitated. Then after a while contemplating her answer and as River feared, she noded. River felt devastated. She knew that this was probably the thought of everyone but had a foolish hope that things would be different. Rosie held up a finger to get her attention "so far as I can tell"River nodded tried to take comfort in that but knew she failed spectacularly as she could feel Roses' anger flaring up again. She sighed, and with more and more people staring at her, she hurried to get breakfast than at the first opportunity, she headed out from the great hall. She almost ran to her Potion lesson.

The lesson was about the Shrinking Solution. Potion had quickly become her second-best subject, and she was also the second-best student of the class after Rosie. As potion did not rely on verbal components, Rosie could release her true potential. She was several leagues beyond all of her peers and above River even if she tho made excellent progress. Slughorn had quickly become both favorite teacher even If he seemed to be in the habit of favoritism.

He had, in the beginning, some questions about her extended family, but he stopped after she made it clear that her extended family did not want anything to do with them and were actively paying them not to associate with them.

Their next lesson was in Defense against the darks art, which was what everyone still called the subject even if the teacher insisted that is was called Defense. In the hope that it would circumvent any jinx that was supposedly on the job. If that worked or not was still almost a year away from being proven. The teacher was still sure that it would work.

That day they were introduced to the expelliarmus spell. They divided into pers, and the teacher had the bright idea to put River and Rosie in separate couples. Their partners were a blond, blue-eyed small for her age girl for River and a tall for his age boy with long brown hair and brown eyes for Rosie.

Both were trembling as they faced off against them. The boy missed Rosie and instead hit a book that skittered towards him, and he fell on it.

The girl took a deep breath, studied her, and calmly said expelliarmus. She felt her wand leave her, and the girl caught it in the air. The girl beamed. River smiled "good work," she said the smile immediately melted away from the girl, and she backed away terrified as River went closer to retrieve her wand. She sighed inwards but put out her warmest smile and said in a polite tone "can I get my wand back so that I can try to do the exercise." she looked at the wand as it was first now she grasped what she had done. She left it on the ground and took several steps away. River was still smiling in what she hoped was a warm, friendly smile. The girl had an expression of pure terror as River was making herself ready to do the exersise. River was wriggling her brain trying to come up with a way to try to calm her down "do you want to try again?" the girl shocked her head. River started to feel desperate "look I do not want to hurt you," that seemed to have the opposite effect. She seemed even more afraid. The only way forward seemed to be to demonstrate that there where no il intent. She took a position and tried not to smile too much this time as she was unsure that it would have the desired effect. She calmly said expelliarmus the girl screamed and bolted for the door. River shocked mind noted her wand was still in her hand.

The entire classroom was silent as they tried to prosses what had just happened. The teacher was the first to recover as he bolted after her with a few classmates in tow.

The entire class stared a River with accusing eyes as if it had been her fault and unfortunately, a part of her agreed with them. She went through their entire conservation in her head, trying to find some way that she could have handled it differently. She turned to Rosie and asked, "was it the smile?" Rosie nodded. River took note she would try not to smile too much when trying to calm people down.

It took about fifteen minutes until they returned the girl looking less afraid and deeply ashamed. She went up to her and bowed her head "sorry I do not know what came over me" River was sure she knew exactly what had come over her. She remained herself that she used to be just as afraid of werewolves as this little girl so she could not blame her for being scared.

She was then teamed up with Rosie again to their former partners' great relief. At the end of the lesson, she was able to get Rosie's wand about half of the time the rest. Rosie had, as usual, more complicated than everyone else as the verbal part where a significant role in casting a charm and even if it was not as complicated for her as it was for typical wizard and wizen it was still far more complicated then speaking a charm out loud. Still, she managed to make her wand go out of Rivers' hand once. They got homework to practice, and they would continue the next lesson.

The incident spread like wildfire. The rumors did not portray River in a good light, and there were even debate if the girl had been right to bolt. It also made it to the school paper. There at least she was not described as a monster, and it was framed as the girl overreacting.

Aden approached her after the next day after her Potion class and with a grin said. "Hi" "Hi," she said back a bit embarrassed. I just wanted to see if you were okay after that article. She looked at him, confused before she saw his panicked expression and a light went up. "Oh you mean the daily prophet article I was thinking about your article." His smile returned, "yes, the Daily Profit article. I have no idea how they could publish something like that. For a second there I thought that I had to be the one to break the news about it "he shook his head in disgust. "To think that they would publish that in the same paper that my dad works at making me furious" With some more small talk and a promise from River to say hi from him to her sister, they parted ways. The encounter made River feel hope that there might be a chance that people would come to except her in time.

She woke up that morning, thinking that she would try to practice smiling in a fashion that did not freak everyone out. She never had that problem before. She arrived in a great hall a bit late, and breakfast was already in session as she came. She took her breakfast with little cere except to avoid attention.

After about ten minutes, the owl post came. To her surprise, a trio of owls landed next to her with a basket. Two owls landed next to Rosie a similar but with a much smaller basket. The basket to the brim filled with red letters. Her mind was stunned trying to place the letters and made the connection with a couple of seconds to spend before uncountable howlers exploded in angry shots. The sound was deafening, and the entire great hall drowned out all other sounds. The only word she was able to hear was freak, monster, and disappear. The voiced were distorted to protect the users' identity. Then it went all quiet again as McGonagall muted them all with a quick secession of charms. River took a closer look at the basked and could see now that at the bottom was the symbol.

The rest of the day proceeded slowly as she started to look for people that tried to prank her, but nothing happened more that day. She wondered if it was that Hufflepuff boy again. But she did not have any evidence. They did not even know if it is the same individual that made both attacks or if it is was different people that were using the same symbol.

She could not use Rosie's power as far as she knew not suitable for interrogation. Catching random information was not a great way to get the truth. Secondly was that she was already under a lot of scrutinies for what she might snap up accidentally. What would happen if they figure out that she had used her power to look into another mind, intentionally River thought. No, she could not ask it of her. She still wondered what she would do when she heard a Ravenclaw girl say "did you hear there was an explosion of some kind in the potion room and the entire class of 4 years Slytherin are temporarily blind". That news felt frightful to River. The attacks were escalating, and they were starting to do them more frequently. Sooner or later, someone was going to be greatly injured. But what could she do, she was not liked enough to do an investigation and did not possess an invisibility cloak so she could sneak around.

She felt so helpless, especially as the rest of the student body with some exception like Hemonie Granger was openly declaring that Slytherin was getting what they deserved and that there shode not complain.

The rest of the head boys and girls were all a bit more hesitant to speak out against them. The only one River saw speck about the subject the school paper asked the head boy of Ravenclaw what he thought about it. River had a hard time knowing what he thought about the issue as he made sure he spoke a lot of words that meant nothing.

She realized that she did not have the right to criticize them as she had not been there last year when the death eaters ruled the school with a lot of help from the majority of Slytherin house. She also had her last remaining blood relative that cered for her in that house. Still, even if they could forgive, there had to exist another way then to drive them away from Hogwarts River thought desperately.

The news about the class was at least uncomfortable for most people which mad River feel a bit better.

Then it was time to go to the cabin again. In the morning, however, Rosie nervously touched River's shoulder. River could feel the nervousness when Rosie without looking at River aked "can I come?". River gape at her for several seconds. She asked her, "why?" in a tone that River realized where a bit condescending. She then felt frustration growing inside her that she knew came from Rosie. "Because I have no one else here, I must make all communique by myself," I am entirely alone without you, and the last time people used that time to bullying me. Finally, it is safe; the cottages are created to withstand a Werwolf, and you take the potion, so it is perfectly safe." River could feel that this was important to her; she nodded still a bit shocked. McGonagall was surprised as well "why you would want to do that? "Rosie looked down in the ground scarlet" I am not able to communicate alone. Besides with the recent howlers, I would like not to be alone."

River translated and McGonagall sighed and said, "you are unfortunately right we have captured several people that have used the symbol, but the founders still elude us at the moment. We still do not know why the people sent those howlers to you, but we suspect a copy cat ". We are going to consult an expert, so do not worry," she said the last word with an odd smile on her face.

Well, let us be going. The trip to the cabins was far more enjoyable with Rosie around. Rosie was moderately impressed by the cottages and was utterly astounded by the gardens and library.

She took a cabin next to River. They entered Rivers cabin were Slughorn had prepared her potion and Rosie looked intensity at her as River drank the potion. When River then looked over at Rosie, she blushed, and she could feel Rosie's shame. River tried to smile as she felt her cheeks grow red and said, "if you did not at least show that amount of worry I would have to reconsider your sanity." Rosie returned the smile sheepishly "sorry I know that you would not forget but" she hesitated, and River continued her sentence "having a werewolf a few meters from you shode with all right make anyone nervous. It is okay" Rosie nodded still River suspected that it still bothered her.

River and Rosie worked together on the assignments given to them, and they finished them before the day was over. The rest of the time they were in the library reading books and playing wizard chess which River lost all their matches.

On the day of the full moon, she could cut the tension with a knife. When the afternoon, there would not even go five minutes when she did not look at the clock. The hardest part where Rosie's emotion was out of control, she could not calm herself so that River felling her stress as well as the shame as Rosie knew that she could feel the stress.

When the clock was almost three River could not handle it anymore. "why do we not go to our cabins and read books and we will meet tomorrow after I have transformed back okay?" she felt her shame again, but also pride "no need you will not transform for several hours, and even if you do you have consumed the potion, so you are safe" ""yes you are completely correct, but I can feel how nervous and stressed It makes you. And as I have already told you would be extremely weird if you felt nothing with having a werewolf transforming next to you. I am extremely grateful that you are here even at all doing the transformation, but there is no need for you to force yourself. I am grateful to have met someone who tolerates me this much" she felt happiness flow through her. She just answered "same" there was a bit of silence then River took her things and walked to her cabin.

The transformation was as usual extremely painful, and then she was bored. There was nothing to do than to wait until she fell asleep. Then she woke up from the pain of transforming back. The next time she woke up, it was daylight out, and she felt the tiredness and fatigue and saw through the window Rives face and felt relief from her. She forced herself on her feet and walked towards the door. Unbolted it and let her through. "sorry if I woke you. I thought something might be "she then lay her eyes on her left arm and River felt her instant fear and disgust. But it was fleeting. She had told her about her arm, but hearing about something and seeing it in person was two different things. Shame took the place of fear and disgust. River was too tired to care. She went back to her bed and took her blanket and wrapped it around herself and made a motion for her to continue. "I was worried I was aware that the transformation was painfull but is it rely on that level? "River thought back to last night and noded. "Rosie looked concerned but was able to contain her emotions so well that River did not get any backlash" "can I get you anything?" she shook her head already feeling the fatigue taking over her and feeling that she would fall asleep. She did not even notice Rosie leaving as the next time she awoke she was not there.

She came to about a half-hour before Madam Pomfrey would arrive. With Rosie returning ten minutes later. This time River a bit stronger, and they discussed Rosie's power. They decided that they would take cabins on opposite sides of the clearing next time to mitigate River's influence." "have you heard from Madam Pomfrey she should be here by now?". River wondered if something had happened. She was worried about her sister even if they had decided that she would arrive tomorrow. She could not feel safe as they where targeting Slytherin even If they thought that her sister was one of the good ones that still she could be in the proximity of the next attack and get hurt. She wondered when she had stopped thinking them as pranks and started seeing them as attacks.

The next time she woke up to see the face of her sister grinning at her, "you forgot to lock the door after you, who knows who could get here." She looked tired but seemed to be in good spirits. River held out her left hand," which made Vivi smile broaden what "no hello before I help you?" River smiled back "hello vile would you kindly remove this extremely was fur from my left arm? "Vile was a nickname that she had given her sister longe ago, and she knew that she hated it. "fine but you did not have to use the v-word." they talked about what had transpired on Hogwarts in their short absent.

The pranks seemed to have increased again, but that was ultimately hard to know for sure as there had started to be copycats, but they were quickly found out with the new expert. She had a grin on her face when talking about the expert, and she refused to give up the person's name. No matter how much River tried, she finely gave up and knew that she would have to see for herself.

Her sister suddenly got quiet "there is something more serious I need to talk to you to about." She took a deep breath before continuing "someone tried to break into your quarters back at Hogwarts when you were gone" "they do not believe that it is the same people targeting Slytherin but you can never be too careful so promise that you will be careful"River smiled "of course I will have I ever been the kind of person that would be snooping around where I should not be" "yes, unfortunately, that was how you got yourself captured in the first place so please for my sanity can you promise that you will not do anything stupid?" she was going to make a joke but bringing up her capture made her remember a couple of bad memories that where not covered by the charm. "mention my capture was a low blow, and it cured me of that nature, but I promise not to try to seek out trouble. If" she pointed at her sister "you promise me to get some rest" Her sister laughed a genuine laugh "deal" they shook hands.

When River returned to school after her second transformation, the whole school seemed to be calmer as they had survived two transformations. They both were getting a bit paranoid as half expected their quarters to be destroyed or something like that instead of their rooms as clean as they had left them.

River was on her way to herbology and was at the moment at the rare occurrence that she was alone. The corridor she was in was infamous for its shallow roof as hagrid could barely fit. She was thinking about how she could get something to do when in wolf form. She was so distracted with this thought that it took her a second to realize that she was falling and the roof had suddenly become the flor. Fist, her legs were off the ground. She managed not to hit her head luckily enough. She lay still for a moment, shocked what had happened to her. Then she decided to look up at the floor and everyone steering at her with wide-opened eyes. She heard running, and she saw both Filtwich and another person she had trouble placing. Flitwick pointed his wand at her. She felt herself regaining normal gravity and levitating safely to the ground. Flitwick came to her side, and with a concern, a voice said, are you okay "she smiled and said, "yes." "when the red-haired man smiled back at her she realized who he was. He was one of the Weasley twins, but he seemed to have lost weight and seemed not to have gotten much sleep. His smile quickly vanished as River realized that this was the expert. "it seems to be a harmless prank. The charm is difficult, and they used it here so she would not fall too far".

She was a lot more alert the rest of the way to the classroom, and when she saw Rosie, she conveyed what had happened. Rosie was furious and had to be told by the teacher to calm down. The lesson istelf was uneventful. Herbology was something that Rosie handicap did not limit her, so she was determined to get good grades, so River put in more effort than she usually would have as her eternal partner.

She wished for her have old friends, but everyone from her past life b was still ignoring her at the best of times and ar the wors were openly hostile. Was not Hufflepuff meant to be loyal? Why had they abandoned her? She had expected it in the begining . She was begining saw that she had always been the odd man out among their friends, and even the person she would have described as her best friend did not see her that way. She was just another in her group which seemed to have imploded doing her absent and no one of them that where inseparable where even on speaking terms. She knew that she was extremely Luckey to have Rosie as a friend. Even luckier was that all the teachers at lest seemed to tolerate her. It was a small comfort she had been here now for a couple of months, and still, people looked at her in disdain. Then there were the attacks that were getting more and more violent, and River was starting to fear what the future was holding.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 before the storm

That was something she pondered when she headed on the way to Hogsmeade. She was escorted by Filch to the Hogssmed an arrangement that would terrify most kids but was a pleasant distraction for her.

She still thought of him as uncle Filch as he had been a friend of her mom and dad for as long as she could remember. To the point where he was her godfather. She suspected that all squibs knew each other in England. Dumbledore had created a support group where her mom and dad had met.

Her godfather seemed tired as last year's take-over and that the number of pranksters had sky-rocket this year took a toll on him. Then there was this group that seemed to be in another leag as they seemed determent to make Slytherins life hell. They succeeded too. With the demon twin as Filch called the Weasley twins, they had captured several cope cats, but their punishment had been light something that annoyed Filch to no end.

He was muttering about them tasting the Cruciatus curse which he had to endure several times last year. The pain from the Cruciatus curse was infamous us and could insanity. She wondered how far Rosie could sense that pain.

They arrived in Hogsmeade where they were going to met Slughorn that had a meeting with his club in the village before. The meet spot was outside of the three broomsticks where he was finishing the session with his Slughorn club. There were a decent amount of people gathered she saw the head boy of Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff as well as the head girl of Ravenclaw. There a lot more people there that River did not recognize

They arrived at the moment when they were saying goodbye. River getting degusted blicks from the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw head boys and girls which most of them quickly masked behind a smile before Slughorn saw it.

Slugghor lit up when he saw her "hello ready to take that trip I will be with you in just a second I have to finish a thing first" River noded "there is no need to rush I do not have an appointment before ten, so there is no need to hurry."

Slughorn beamed, and she sat down to wait. She did not mind as she and filch talked about the time when her mother had a costumer that could not wrap himself around the concept of the internet. She had to come with him on a sidelong apparition to show him that yes muggles knew how to send messages instantly.

That made her mind try to remember memory, but the magic prevented her from access to it. It manifested as a weird feeling in her mind almost. Flitch noticing something was wrong and asked if she was okay "oh I am fine; it was just my mind trying to trigger a blocked memory. It sometimes happens when I'm close to my adjustment. It a small price to pay for not being broken," flinch nodded Grimley.

The conservation drifted to the new government, which was still in shambles but was on its way to recovery.

Flitch went on a rant about Harry Potter, and the gist of it was that he was a troublemaker that did not follow the rules. Flitch was the only person River knew that did not only have praise for Harry Potter. Most people river meet had some almost religious tone when they spoke about him.

After almost an hour, Slughorn entered apologizing for taking so long. River and Flitch said goodbye, and she took a deep breath. Then suddenly slughorns harm twisted, and her vision turned black as there was enormous pressure from all sides. She was unable to breathe, and the pressure was intense, then suddenly it stopped, and she could breathe again.

They arrived at a sparely furnished apartment Slughorn owned that was close to the hospital. It was something he had acquired the apartment recently, so if something happened, he could apparat there.

The hospital itself was an apparat restricted zone so that there would not be any incidents. It had zones that could be apparated to, but they were reserved for emergencies only.

They headed to the entrance of the hospital. It looked like it had always done with a puppet asking them for their reason for being there. Slughorn said goodbye to her as she informed the puppet about her apartment.

River headed in and went to the receptionist and repeated herself. She was told to wait in the waiting room until her appointment.

The waiting room was the most boring she could imagine. It had a grey ceiling, grey walls, a couple of grey couch and some magazines and a newspaper on a table.

She was skimming the newspapers and saw this morning's daily prophet had the tagline "Arrest of several death eaters." She took the paper and scanning the names to see if any of them tingled. She knew that she did not remember their names, but that did not stop her from being able to use the feeling she got from when memory was blocked to be able to determine if it were related to her capture. Nothing triggered not even a few pictures of some of the people they captured. Disappointed she put the newspaper down. She could read the rest of the paper but decided to instead read the quibbler for the comedic effect.

She read until she heard a familiar voice. The man In question was from Japan and had been here for about twenty years. He had long black hair with a hint of grey and had a slight accent.

The first time they meet, she knew she had looked horrible, and he had not been sure that his new methods would work. So their first meeting had been very awkward. "Godmoring doctor Mitsuzuka, " River said " call me Isa, and I apologize for the wait. I had some problems with the patient before you that needed to be corrected, or the entire charm might have collapsed. "River felt a shiver down her spine "oh, something I need to be worried about?" Mitsuzuka looked guilty "no-no, the problem is that it is such a narrow timespan that the magick have a heard time placing itself in the patient memory, but I am confident that I solved that, so let's take the rest of this conservation to my office."

They went up to his office.

She remembered his office as cold, but even if she only been there a few times. When she arrived, she was surprised to see that it felt more friendly. It was not a big room with light blue walls, a desk full of papers, several bookshelves, and two armchairs.

They sat down in the armchairs, and after a moment, the doctor said. "Are you ready?" She noded. He placed his wand on her head, and she felt dizzy as the charm took effect. Then suddenly a memory resurfaced. It felt like she was reliving it in a second.

She saw an older, slightly overwait man with short grey hair and big rim glasses. His name was still escaping her. She remembered the excuse he used over and over again. "I am sorry, but this is a necessity. Their technology evolves at a staggering rate war with them is, so if we want to win we must make the first move, or we will die ".

She felt an incredible rage and hatred building inside of her, and it tried to connect to other memories, but they were blocked. There was more to this but that what she remembered at the moment. So how are you feeling? He looked taken aback by her sudden rage but quickly composed himself. She was going to respond with good but caught herself "angry, the memory in question is about the cause one of the researchers used for everything he did" the doctor nodded she continued "he reasoned that as muggle technology improvs at the rate it is right now it will come the point were we be unable to hide anymore and then a war will commence. There is more connected to this, but it is blocked. One of the worst parts is he is there is some merit, and it felt horrible not to have a good counter-argument." The doctor leaned back and with a calm voice, said, "what makes you think that it has merit?" "well, my mom's job was to learn about muggle technology and teach. It was a lot of work to be able to keep up for her continuously. She "Rivers's voice broke as she remembered her mother. When it was clear that she was not going to continue, he spoke in a soft voice.

"it is a hard question to answer, and I will not pretend that I have the answer, but I would not underestimate our ability to evolve" something about that tried to trigger a memory but was blocked. They continue talking for some time about her time at school which Isa thought that she handled great.

She walked out of there, feeling refreshed but tired. She was picked up with Slughorn, and she headed straight to bed after she came back to the castle.

The next day she and Rosie haded down to Potions when she almost ran into the Huggelpuff boy that they suspected might be a member that was in a hurry. He passed them headed somewhere. "I wonder where he is going?"River mused for herself, "probably to a classroom on the third floor." Rosie answered River looked at her in surprise. Rosie shrugged, "I can identify people's minds in my vicinity, and I have felt him go there a couple of times. I have not spied on him. Just keep tabs on him since this whole thing began." She looked defensive and did not look River in the eye as she spelled out the last sentence. River shrugged back "its probably a good ide" Rosie relaxed. They continue walked together to the Potion lesson where Rosie was praise to be one of the best students Slughorn ever had. She beamed, and the entire class mirrored her expression of joy. Which quickly turned to fear as Rosie regened control over her emotions.

The rest of that week, everyone in the class felt very of Rosie. Rosie had improved her control over her power slightly from the start of term, but there were still a lot of leaks. Every time she had the outbursts, the people effected started to view her worse and worse, which in turn made it harder for Rosie to control herself.

It was strange the more time went on River and Rosies public perfection shifted so that people were more very of Rosie then of her, which made Rosie feel miserable, which spread if she did not have her guard up, which made River feel miserable as well. It lessened as Halloween fest grew closer. Rosie looked forward to it, and River felt the loss of her sense of taste very hard.

The day before the fest, they had a rare moment with her sister. She looked great. River greeted her with "well at least both of us are keeping our promise" " her sister smiled and replied " well it loke like they are taking a break for their attacks we have to hope it is because the teachers are closing in on them and that it is making them nervous" River noded they talked about For almost an hour about Rosie and what could be done to help her. They departed the next time she would see her sister were ar the hollowing feast.


	6. Chapter 6

On the day of the feast, they could see that everyone seemed to be in a better mood. They had received news that several departments that had been down being now up and running. The intensity of the pranks seemed to have toned down. The reason seemed to be people have gotten the worst out of their system.

When they woke up, they noticed that McGonagall had stated an announcement that she was going to release on the feast. The statement had probably been there for a while, but nether River and Rosie had noticed it. The rest of the morning was spent discussing different theories on what it could be. Rosie thought that it would have something to do the group, and River was adamant that it was probably something to do with the government.

Which made sense, but River had a secret hope that it would be another three wizard tournament and maybe being able to see dragons again. She still remembered how intense the first challenge had been and how disappointed she had been at the other two as there had been impossible to see anything. But she still remembers the feeling the exhilaration when she saw the Dragons. There was something that majestic about them, River thought.

When they arrived back to the common room, there were a lot of chatter about True Hogwarts had made a comeback, they decided to see for themselves and headed out and took the steres when they had a free moment.

It was not hard to track where the message had come from as they grew close to the second floor; the number of people increased as people were arriving in a hurry and leaving whispering among themselves. When they arrived, there was a considerable crowd that parted when River got close. Which for a second, felt oddly satisfying as they gave way for her until she saw their faces. It looked like they had not overcome their fear of her. When they arrived at the front, they saw a scene.

It was close to the first incident with the True Hogwarts. There was the modified Hogwarts logo, the snakes that were aflame, and a menacing message. There were two differences fist instead of fake snakes. There were seemed to be real ones. River could feel the heat as they screamed in soundless agony as they were ablaze. She was unsure if they were still alive or if it was a very realistic illusion. The second was a completely different massage

"We won't stop, and we will not disappear. The revolution has just begun."

It sent shiver down her spine as it suggested that they were still going. She hoped that they did not have the guts to do something dangerous.

River and Rosie returned to their rums in silence until the time to go to the feast arrived. When they arrived, River was momentary stunned. She had forgotten just how serious they take this holiday. They had gone all out this year again with flowing glowing pumpkins and The ceiling that normally reflected the sky had momentarily changed to show a big red full moon

The red moon made everyone look at River with a terrified expression until they were sure that she was not going to transform. Some of them even brought out their wands to be ready to hex her if she would transform. She did not blame them for as even her rational mind said there was not a chance that she was going to transform. There was a part of her that felt nervous all the same.

Eventually, everyone seemed to calm down. River could see her sister sitting at the far end of the Slytherin table. So she was as close she could be to River as she could be. She wondered if she had done that n purpose as their eyes meet, and gave her an encouraging smile. McGonagall called for attention, and that all fell silent as she addressed the group in her usual manner." As you all probably know, the department of education is now up and fully operational at last, so we are going to have an overview of what our routine of and create a plan I how we can improve that. There will be interviews with all classes, and there will both be hand-picked students that we teach have agreed on as well as a randomized sample. We expect you to cooperate with them to the fullest degree. Be sure that the content of individual interviews will not be view by the teachers so that you will be able to enjoy total immunity. That was all dig in."

At her command, the numerous dishes appeared, and there where all hollowed teemed there where pumpkin juice, Roasted potato carved as pumpkins, and meatballs that looked like eyeballs. It all looked delicious and smelled wonderful. River felt her frustration that all of it would taste nothing. Instead of digging in, she looked enviously around and saw Rosie and her sister eating with a big appetite. She could see the joy on their faces and looked at her food for a second, wondering if she would pretend hard enough if she could trick her mind into thinking that the food had a taste.

When she looked up, her sister's expression had changed. She had stopped eating and was holding her throat as she had trouble breathing. There was even a blue tint on her face. It took River less than a second to identify that it was Sevarox poison. She bolted to her sister, ignoring completely the frighten looks she got from the other students. When she reached her sister, she drew her wand and screamed immediately, Beteradior. There was a faint blue light emitting from her wand Imidentlt her face took on a more pink competition, and she could breathe easier. River sighed out of relief, but it was brief as she saw her sisters' friends blue-tinted faces.


	7. Chapter 7

River started to use the charm on as many students she could systematically go from her sister in the far corner towards the centre. Soon after, she started, she heard McGonagall, Flitwick, and Slughorn voices raised in alarm their exact words lost to her. She saw someone with brown hair streaking past in the corner of her eye. She ignored it and focused on her task.

She was on her third student when what was happening dawned on the rest of the student body, and panic broke loss. She was only dimly aware of the screaming that filled the room. She started to feel tired and feared that she would slip up. It was getting harder and harder to concentrate, and she knew that every second counted. The poison was fast working, and soon it would be too late for them. She was losing track of time as she went from student to student. She realized that any moment now she would begin to encounter people that were too far gone to save. She let that fact spur her pace.

She started to encounter students that showed that their skin of bluer. River knew from experience that it was not long after that their lips took on a black aspect and they died. She began to shake so badly that she needed to stop for a second and take a deep breath before she could continue. She steeled herself, and as River was going on to the next student she ran into someone, and they both fell.

They both hit the ground hard and was momentarily stunned. Their gaze met, and River realized that she had run into Hermione Granger. They looked at each other for a moment before hurriedly got up and locked behind the other person. When they saw that the students behind the other were treated, they together looked further behind Granger were the teacher was finishing the last student. River sat down feeling completely drained.

She watched as Granger went to Professor Flitwick, and together they created a shimmering dome over the students. She looked around it seemed that the prefects had things under control and had gathered the students on the other side of the hall. River found Rosie still in her seat, slumped down. River felt the panic rising again until She got closer and, to her relief, saw that her face was still her natural complexion. She walked up to Rosie and examined her and saw that she seemed unconscious but otherwise unharmed. She remembered that if there were too many strong emotions like fear, she would be overwhelmed.

She breathed more comfortably and looked over to the Slytherin students. She knew that they were far from out of danger. The poison could relatively easily be delayed but cured it was an entirely different matter. She did not even know if it was possible, but she had to hope.

Then River heard a bang, and the student in front of the entrance were flying out of the way of a white-faced Madam Pomphrey as she joined the others. River sat next to Rosie and watched as Madam Pomphrey was informed about the situation.

Madam Pomphrey listed as she surveyed the students she was pointed to River as she sat beside Rosie. McGonagall nodded and said in a magically magnified voice, "everyone that can perform the body-slowing charm remains here. The rest of you return to your common rooms. The prefects are in charge". River and two more students from the crowd joined the rest. Before the students even had time to leave, McGonagall continued, "we need to get them all to St Mungo's. They need to extract the poison a bit at a time until it is small enough for them to survive it."

River felt relief that they already had a plan of action. Still, it was neutralized by the worried expression of the headmistress.

The headmistress sent a couple of teachers ahead and, with the rest, started to prep the students for transportation. The body-slowing charm only lasted for an hour, so River, Luna, and the two newcomers had the assignment to refreshing the charm.

They made the students levitate in a line to the outside of the school. The trip was aery as they silently followed the procession of the students to the edge of the school in silence. The evening was chill and she wished that she had a jacked. She walked beside her sister as the procession made its way towards the outside. She was spared this moment from the charge of refreshing the charm and held her sister's cold hands in her which was strangely reassuring as the coldness was a part of the char so that she knew that it worked. If it was not working, her sister would be feverishly hot.

McGonagall must had spread the word for meeting them at the edge of the school grounds were the rest of the teachers as well as people from Hogsmeade. There was a constant pop as more people arrived at the edge of the grounds. When the precision reached the outside of the charm that prevented apperation. The single line of students divided into several and people would cast the body-slowing charm on the fist row then others used sidelong apparition to get them to the hospital. Her job was to make sure that the student furthers away had their charm refreshed.

River felt empty as the repetitive task of refreshing the charm now when everybody was out of imminent danger. She felt a bit of panic as they removed her sister but forced herself to remain calm. There were nurses from the hospital that took the people that knew appriation one at the time to the place which had been prepared for them. So that they knew where they should aim there apperation. There was a worried look on Grangers' faces when she reappeared before she took a deep breath and took a student and twisted and was gone. There was a constant pop as more people were showing up, and the old ones were reappearing the ones that knew the charm help her in as they took small brakes from transporting people.

It where not a great idea to transport sick people this way but it was necessary in this case. She felt worried that it would worsen her sister's condition. The longer she was awey from her the closer she felt to she felt to tears. She managed to keep her composition until when it was finely her turn. As the last of the students had been transported. A wizard an inch shorter, then her with black heir walked towards her, and without even a word, they locked arms. She felt the man's arm, twist then suddenly there where the familiar feeling of apperation as darkness enclosed everywhere and she felt pressed from all directions. Suddenly she was in an enormous hall that reminded her of a giant bunker. River would never have guest that this was a part of St Magnus.

There were several nurses with grim expressions that were moving along the students and examine them in turn. When they finished with the examination, there was a slight relief on their faces. The head nurse turned to the crowd," It looks like you were fast enough so that they will if we are lucky all survive." She looked at them with a grim expression "we will divide you into groups. You will together refresh the charm". "We will have a set of nurses as well, but most of us will focus on extracting the poison. It is an exhausting prosses, so we will need to rest often and then we will help a bit in refreshing the charm. But for the most part, you will have the primary responsibility in keeping them alive for long enough for us to extract enough of the poison.

The groups were River, Luna Lovegood and Harmonie Granger, The Hufflepuff which name was Sebastian Foster and Flitwick Slughorn, and the Gryffindor students. They were given a short speech on the importance of their task and if that failed in keeping the charm up, they would die.

After fifteen minutes of refreshing the charm they were given a small brake as Slughorn and some nurses had prepared potion they would help them stay focus and spare their voices. It was as she drank the red liquid from one of this bottes as her mind made a connection that it had been too occupied to do before and it almost made her lose the charm she was casting. This had been their message had meant with this is your final warning. she felt a rage build inside her,. This had not been a warning, but an attempt of mass murder had they no idea what kind of poison they had been using. It was lucky that she had the first period so that she had to consecrate on what she was doing.

The nurses did not exaggerate when they said that extracting the poison would be exhausting for them. There were several steps to the prosses. The first part was that they cast a charm over the person. Then they put their wand on their target and, with great effort, drew the wand back and pulled something out of their bodies on the tip of their wands then put it into a bottle. They were not able to do more than three before almost collapsing. They were pushing themselves to the utmost limits. Which told River of the seriousness and that these people could die if they screwed up their part.

They got more of the potion so that their throats would not hurt. They had a brief diner where they all were to overwhelm to make much of a conservation. The important of their job did not remove the extremely repetitive nature, and they had to keep in mind what was at stake for them to not let the repetition dull their concentration.

After what felt like forever it was time to switch teams, they headed to a rest zone that was set aside for them. It was several rows of Sleeping bags with a bathroom close by. Next to the Sleeping bags there were potions. They were instructed that this was sleep potions that would give them six hours of sleep, which was probably necessary for them to sleep at all. River was sure that she would not be able to sleep otherwise. They all gulped the potion at almost the same time. Immediately after she drank the potion, she realised that this potion did not remove dreams. Which as much dreed as her tired mind could muster, she was unable to not resist the potions effect and she fell into a world of nightmares.

Her first dream was a suppressed memory. The memory itself was not of anything dire it was just connected with a lot of painful ones, so it had been suppressed as collateral damage. She was her present self trapped in the body of her former self and felt her thought and emotions as echoes. She was not free to move as she pleased as and was restricted by her former self. She was in her cage. The walls were with one exception made of glass. There was also her bed made from a soft stone with charm; it was comfortable. There was also an orb that removed filth from the area.

The significant about this memory was the arrivals of new test subjects. There were three, two men and one woman she could not remember their features so she thought that they died in some painful way. They all had smiles on their faces and floated towards their cages. They were all under some sort of Cher charm. With them looking so glad, she suspected it was the woman's doing. Her name escaped her as it connected to so many painful memories. By her feeling towards them, she figured that this was not too long ago as it did not seem to be a big surprise. She could see her former self-thinking if they had already turned or if they were test doll for some other test to see if they could weaponize the curse. It sent shivers down her spine. She wondered if they had escaped with her or if they were dead. Then came a man also obscured as her mins was unable to remember him as he was as well connected to many painful memories. He took out three devises that looked like different coloured bottles. He made them drink and then noted which one had taken which bottle. He turned to the woman "Now we wait and see if we have more luck with this potion" The woman shook her head "I doubt it, still if you manage to realise your experiment and are able to turn them into werewolves with this potion. It will be a great step forward in our plans."

Then her second dream began. This dream was less visual. There was something silver coming out of her eyes and mouth. Then the taste of blood and a sound that shook the world. Finely there was an empty void of complete silence. She woke up with a start and managed not to scream.

As she did, she could see Hermione and Luna doing the same. She felt oddly refreshed even though she had those nightmares. They had a brief breakfast when they left the rest area. They meet with a sight shocked River right outside their ret zone where the minster of magic. "Kinsley," Hermione burst out with grin that was responded in kind by the mister, "Hermione good to see you" He turned would, you girls, mind if I talk to her in privet" River shook her head. Luna simply said, "not at all," and they walked away. When she looked over to the treatment area, she saw that they had reinforcements from government employers and other civilians. She also noticed that people were helping the nurses with the excavation of the poison. For the first time, she felt hopeful a feeling that disappeared as she realized that not all the Slytherins was there. Panic rose up as she scanned rge rows as she searched for her sister and when she found her, she felt most of the panic drain away.

A nurse came towards them. River was too afraid to ask as she feared the answer. It was Luna that asked with a uncharacteristic worried tone," there seem to be some students missing where are they?" The nurse gave them a tired but comforting smile, and said, "most of them had an only small amount of poison in their system, and it is already completely removed from their bodies" She was unsure if her voice would hold "most?" The nurse's smile turned sober "two have complications as the charm was not probably reapplied, so they got worse and had to get into intensive care. Their life is at the moment out of danger" she must have read their expression "do not worry. It was someone after you or it would have should much earlier," they all sighed out of relief. River looked around to see If there where someone from the other team close by, not seeing them, she relaxed. The nurse continued "we have placed additional indicators that shows how long the charm have left so that this will not be repeated." She pointed at a blue square around a above a student's head that was turning black as the charm expired. The square was floating in the air above the student. Hermione returned a while after, and she and Luna had a whispering conservation. Then Luna retold what the nurse had said to Hermione, and she saw the same relief she had felt. She even checked to see if there where someone from the other team around with an expression if embarrassment that she imagen had closely resembled her own.

It felt weird for her to do something that she had done herself. It made her seem more human, which she now realized that she had not truly considered her. She had not to time to further ponder what she exactly thought she was as it was time to go back to work. They drank their small potion as well as a sort of energy potion Slughorn had made. She felt truly alive, and she had a more exceptional ability to focus. She understood why this potion was banned from tests. It was also something that was not healthy to use for extended periods of time, but It was critical to focus on the task at hand. They went through the same movements as they had last night. But they were now more focused as they with more clarity knew the cost of failure.

They continued the routine until it was time for lunch. It was a merciful hour as the minister Wizards arrival had altered their timetable, so they had time to take a breather. The first thing she did was to excuse herself from the rest and go to see Andrew.

She found him after he had just said goodbye to a patient. When his eyes met hers, she could see his worry, "there you are, how your sister? How are you feeling?" She was about to say okay but knew that he would see right thought it. "I am dealing with it. My sister is still in the danger zone. But the reason I came here is that I did not have a dreamless potion last night, and I remembered something." He managed to lock booth interested and considered at the same time, not an easy feat to accomplish. "She retold the memory she had experience the night before and he made some notes on a pad and nodded. "you did tell us that one of the scientist's area of study was infection and that his project was to create a weapon that could create werewolf outside the full mone. As the person that died at the Battle of Hogwarts, I doubt there any real danger" He smiled "thank you for the information. Still, you should rest your sister and all her Slytherin comrades need you at full strength" she smiled back, wondering if she had overacted as she headed back to the bunker.

She found Hermione and Luna eating. They beckoned her to join them. She paid little attention to the food as she assumed anything they served at a hospital was healthy. Seeing the other girls' expression they both thought it tasted delicious. a short while after she had joined them, Granger said, "I think people have gotten overwhelmed with all that have happened so I do not think anyone have said this yet but it was good reflexes and decision making on your part. There probably wold have ben fatalities if you had not acted without any hesitation" "Thanks," River muttered, she was blushing. Hermione continued "Did you see, hear or sense anything strange before the attack?" "no, should I " River said slowly. Hermione seemed to consider her words carefully. "I do not want to seem rude, but there is a rumour going about that the experience you endured might have given you" She paused briefly "certain abilities." No nothing I am aware of". River answered stiffly. She let the answer hang in the air for a moment before elaborating. "The experience did not give me anything. It only took awry. The reason I was able to identify the poison was one of the Deatheater was interested in the healing properties of the werewolf transformation." Hermione looked confused, "healing properties" River cuntinued"when a werewolf transforms the act of transforming can heal almost any wound, cure practically any poison. The rescuers wanted to try to use that to create something that could cure anything, so he experimented a lot with different poisons." The silence came back.

River was stricken with a sudden thought, and as much as she wanted to ask it for its own sake, she also wanted desperately to fill the awkward silence. "if you do not mind me asking what kind of man was Lupin?" Hermione looked confused; then, a sad smile spread across her face. "He was much like he was as a teacher. I am sure you remember. "Now it was Rivers turn to have a sad smile. I would not know as I never had the pleasure my first defence against the dark arts was the death eater." Hermione looked surprised, "you are fifteen?" "This was a reaction she was used to," "so" Lona Lovegood timed in "you're a giant in your class" River nodded. "Hermione still looked at her in disbelief how are you able to cast such advised charm." River mode dimed a bit, and she briefly thought about lying but could not come up with a convincing one. "They did more than just werewolf experiments. You can only do the experiments on a werewolf once a month. Unless you are trying to come up with something to force people or make it so that they can control their transformation." She saw that both looked concerned, "do not worry as far as I know no experiment subsided" they did not seem overly relived. She realized that she probably opened the door to something they probably did not know existed or wanted to.

"Anyway, one of the things they wanted to test was an alternative method of learning, The exact method is still locked inside my head, but some of the things stuck. I am sure that there was much more they tried to see if I would remember, but I do not have access to those memories. She was starting to regret her honesty, as it did not seem to help. They were salient as they absorbed the information, "so," River said as she was desperate to feel the silence with something "how did you know the charm?" Harmonie said, " I learned it as a preparation for the journey I took last year." Luna was smiling broadly" the reason I know it is simple; it is my mother's charm, so of course, I am had to learn it." Hermione looked impressed. "I see that probably why it is not so well know even though it is a potent charm." It so new, and wizards have an annoying habit of treating any charm or potion that is not hundreds of years old to not worth teaching. Going back to your original question.

Lupin was a teacher true and through. His focus when we were in our third-year was magical creatures and how to survive them. He was not perfect, but in the end, no one is. Still, he taught us much more than any other defence against the dark arts teacher." She described several lessons and even their final exam and what her Bogort had transformed into.

Still our newest professor, is starting to become the second favourite professor." "oh, which one is your current number two then? " Luna asked it took a second for Hermione to answer, "I want to say professor Snape. Still, as a teacher, I think that he was less then desirable if you were not wearing green." She pondered "professor Lovegood was a complete fraud and tried to erase my friends' memories, Proffer Quirrell as a teacher where okay and he was the vessel of Voldemort." River winced at she mention the name"Umbrage was probably the worst as a teacher as we had to form our own club to learn anything that year " "Oh yes but we should we not count harry then as he basically took over as our defence against the dark arts teacher. "Oh yes, if you count Harry, I think I would put him as second, but if not, I think that I have to go to fake Madeye as he did a good job teaching us even if he only did it as a cover. Even if some of it was on the grey side of the law,"

River remembered fake moody "as a first-year, I thought he was terrifying, and he did have a bizarre laugh." "I never heard him laugh; it had to be something very amusing as Moody was not famous for laughing, and Crowler junior was always sure to keep up appearances. "

Before she could tell about that embracing thing, their conservation was interrupted by a nurse that was barely able to stay on her feet. That is was their turn to reinforce the Charms.

With the ministry helping with both the relativizing the charm and removing the poison, the number of students that they were taking care of was steadily decreasing. The system that did use that they took the youngest with the least amount of poison in their system first which the logical way as if there were any mistakes on their part or if it took too long as the charm would not slow down the poison forever. It would lead them to a slow death and the younger people where, the easier they would succumb. This meant that her sister would be one of the last people to have the poison eliminated from their system. She wanted to protest and try to make it so that they made an exception for her, but she could not bring herself to do it. How could she live with herself if by her decision someone died because she convinces them to prioritize her sister was? She had to respect the knowledge of the sisters and hope that her sister was strong enough. The one thing that keep her going was that the nurse had said that with luck, they could all survive.

She noticed a development that people were following the people performing the charm. she realized that they were training up more people. She wondered if she was going to get any training or if they were going to replace her. Both of her assumptions were wrong. The new blood did allow her and the others to take more of a break. They seemed to be reluctant to have the "newbies" go by themselves too much, and they wisely did not assign her to teach anyone. She was happy they did not replace her with another, which would have made her feel like she was not able to do anything for her sister. which she did not know if she would be able to handle.

There was more, and more of the children brought out to recover in another part of the hospital. Still, the poison was progressing in the others. The nurses seemed to be at their wit's end. She realized that her hope was a foolish one that there was no way for the nurses to be able to cure all of them and it was almost partly her fault that her sister might be the last one as she had been the first charmed when only the first symptoms had been relived. On her break, she went to the bathroom and wept. Her hope that eventually her sister would be cured had been almost destroyed. Her only hope was that they had Hermonie Granger and surely she thought. Granger had to come up with a plan. She would just haft to believe in her. She had been one of the people that had defeated he who should not be named alongside Harry and Ron.

She walked to the others with a desperate hope that she clung with all her might to or else River felt like she would go insane. They ate silently. River refusing to look at Hermione as her mind was to fragile at the moment, and anything except complete confidence in Grangers expression she felt would break her. She started to pay less and less attention on what was going around her and she just ate, worked and slept. This went on for three days. At this point, there were no nurses or minsters left standing. They were all recovering. She was starting to lose the glimmer of hope she had started with as most of their patients now shoved the second stage of the poisoning the black lips. She knew that if it reached the third stage that the pupils disappeared, and would be too late. There were people that tried to get her in conservation and even Andrew pay her a visit a couple of times but they soon left her alone as they noticed that she was not paying any attention. The only thing that made her react was a comment from Andrew that she might feel better if she took a day of. She exploded and almost roared at him but managed to keep her voice only a bit higher then a conservational tone. He took everting in stride squeezed her shoulder and said that "I thought that was the only way for you to listen to me if you need to take care of yourself and trust in us adults that we will do anything in our power to help your sister" That made river feel better for a little while then the desperation made her put up the same berries again

It was around lunch on the fifth day since the poisoning a sound that could not exist erupted in the bunker. she looked up after performing the charm on a boy with pale blond hair. She saw that the Everyone was cheering a collection of nine women and five men that came from the entrance to the bunker with hurried steps. The man with orange heir that was leading them had with a grin on his face and said with obvious glee . "The first delegation has arrived". There was only one thought was crossing Rivers mind her sister was going to live. She was almost brought to tears right there and then but was able to hold herself of enough so that she was able to continue working. The head nurse went to them on shaky legs, but persevering and told them who they should be prioritising first they Immediately. She was relieved of the duty to rest shortly after they arrived. She, Hermione, and Luna took a seat and before the break-even when over five more wizards and three witches arrived. River then broke down and started to cry as she was now free from work for the moment "welcome back from the dead," Luna said "thanks" River said after she recovered a bit embarrassed. "I first thot it was a Nemarua had bitten you, but considering" she pointed at where her sister lay still not showing the sign of the black lips. Hermione's voice where a bit nervous "did no one inform you that there where delegations from all over Europe coming here to help?" River could feel herself flush" probably, I have not paid attention on what people have said the last couple of days." Hermione nodded, "well, now the worst is behind us. Three more delegations are coming," River felt like a great wait of her shoulders and it was with a soring in her step she returned to work.


	8. Chapter 8

It took less than two days after the first of the delegation had arrived for them to complete the rest of the student poison removal. The students became absolute when the number of patients shrunk to the degree that could easily be handled by a few people. River felt grateful no one made her leave. The students shared the same mindset as they all felt like seeing this through to the end. River, especially as her sister, was physically fit, and she had not taken much poison, so she was the last taken away for recovery. When her sister was finely outside the danger zone, a wave of tiredness washed over her. All the worry, anger, and despair that had been with her since the feast disappeared.

She sat down and let the peace fill her as they moved out the last of the patients to the recovery room. When the hall was empty of students, it erupted in noise as the people celebrated. There were a lot of pats on the back and even some hugs. Which River was glad she was not a part of that interaction. The noise moved her out of her half-sleep, and the atmosphere around her was energizing. She took a deep breath and joined the rest of the celebration.

After about a half-hour, she saw McGonagall coming toward them an uncommon smile. The students gathered around her "Good work. I am proud of you all." She let them enjoy the complement then continued. "You have two options. First, I can get you to the castle today, or we can get you tomorrow morning. There is a celebration for the people that helped in this crisis. It will be in the Leaky Cauldron, where I can get you rooms."

Hermione seemed to be rooted in thought when McGonagall finished, she looked up before the others had time to say anything and said. "I think we should wait for tomorrow's afternoon. We should get some more free time, maybe to three in the afternoon." There was some sort of quiet communication between them. After a short pause, she answered, "well, I think you all could use the rest. Be careful with the alcohol you are representing Hogwarts. Be sure to remember that." "yes, headmistress," they said in unison.

They then went together to the Leaky Cauldron. The atmosphere inside was calm until the people inside realized that Hermonie Granger had entered the building. They swarmed her, but before she was overwhelmed, she was able to point out to the barman that River was under seventeen. Not that River would have tried, but she had to admit that she had the urge to try to see if she could get away with it.

The event itself was the most fun she had since before her capture. For a night, she was not a werewolf. She was just another comrade that had helped avert a catastrophe.

She saw Sebastian Foster talking to a ministry employee that did not seem more then a couple of years older than him. They seemed to get along quite well.

She talked most with an older lady from Sweden that had a fascinating job in being a researcher on a rare disease. After it had affected her daughter, she had decided her life to mitigate it or, if possible, to cure it. She had not found a cure, but she had made several ways to reduce the symptom. The disease had a long time ago taken her daughter's life. However, she had lived a good life and left her behind grandchildren that she adored. She persisted in her research so that she could help other patients.

The amount and variation of people that had dropped everything to come and help them were humbling. One person was fresh out of the German medic program that had gotten their certificate less they 48 hours before. She was able to avoid personal questions by telling stories regarding the legendary trio. There were several legends that they had created in their time at Hogwarts that made it easy to entertain all their attention.

The center of attention was Harmonie Granger, with a swarm of admirers. River wondered if there existed a similar sense of holiness over Harry Potter and his friends outside Britain or if they had a more grounded view. She realized, based on how people spoke with Hermione, that it might be the opposite. That not being exposed to their exploits except rumors might increase their legendary status.

Eventually, she started to get tired and decided to get some sleep. Before she headed to bed, she took a detour to take a short bath. There was a bit of a line, but eventually, she was able to get into the hot water and enjoy a job well done.

She went to her room, almost skipping. Everyone was going to live, and the celebration had been a blast. She went straight to bed, still with a grin on her face. When she was close to sleep, she felt like she had forgotten something. She was unable to remember or to wake herself until she fell asleep. River had forgotten to take her dreamless potion and was once again in the land of dreams.

The dream started great as she was eating their typical Friday meal of tacos with her family. They were sitting in their living room in the house she had grown up. Her mom was there with her blond hair and brown eyes and a warm smile. Beside her slender frame was her father, a man that compensated for being without magic with muscles. He had short black hair and piercing blue eyes. He knew that his fists would do little to a prepared wizard. His philosophy had always been that both he and his potential opponents knew that fact as well. So, they would underestimate him, and if he could strike them in such a wat that they did not get up, it did not matter that they had magic, and he didn't.

Her sister was there wholly cured. Her mother was silently laughing at a jest their father told. Lastly, there was a mirror beside their dining table, showing her reflection, and she was back to normal again. Without her snake eye and scales, as she held out her left hand, she could see that it was a replica of her right arm. Everything was perfect. Her dad was talking about what he thought her sister should do after she had finish school. He wanted her to work for the Ministry to help end the prejudice against Squib. River nodded her head in agreement. But her mother shook her head, and then her mute mother spoke.

The voice made River feel strange, both a need to please it but also scared of it. Her mother features started to shift slightly, and River recognized them as beginning to resemble The female doctors. The memories of her were unavailable. Still, she knew enough. Now she was terrified. "well, I think she should be a researcher. Specifically, a researcher into werewolves. Think of what she could learn"

Now everything seemed to darken. She wanted to say that it was a horrible ide and how could they even consider it. She could not speak a word. "we even have the perfect try dummies right here," she pointed to both her and her father. Their father and sister nodded their approval fervently "you would do anything to help your sister, right? To help me?"

River almost jumped out of her seat, and everything except her mother started to fade. She took a couple of steps towards the kitchen then she awoke in her cell. She was bond in the way she was when they were visiting her in her cell.

Her mother's facial expression transformed even more into someone else. Her clothes turned into a lab coat with several pieces of jewelry. The most noteworthy was a beautiful necklace with a giant blue stone in the middle. She still could not remember her name, and when she did not focus on her feature faded from her memory. She recognized her voice so full of what seemed like genuine concern, pity, and affection.

Her mother smiled, and with affection, said, "Did you have a good dream?" That sentence shook her to her core. She started to question reality. Was it that she had escaped r that she was still in the cage. Her escape felt unlikely as she considered what had happened to her since her flight. She conceded that the cage must be the actual reality. She even smelled her perfume. That she was unable to remember her features, her sleeping mind just figured was an after effect of the latest experiment. The woman smiled and said, "would you help me with an experiment?" It was not a question that River could answer no to. Still, she nodded fervently anyway as it might lead to a reward, and if she were difficult, the reverse. She smiled, "thank you," she said again, sounding completely genuine. But first, she touched her wand to her forehead. River woke up.

She barely contained a scream. She pined herself to try to reinforce to herself that this was reality.

Most of her memories regarding that woman were the ones that the charmed sealed. The few memories she had indicated that she was a skilled manipulator that needed to control people.

She sighed and looked at the clock. It was six hours before she and the others would return to Hogwarts. The dream had sapped her of much of the extreme joy she had been feeling. Her mind returned to what had happened. She recalled the Hufflepuff that had made the graffiti, and she wondered what he did in the abandoned classroom. She knew that she did not have any proof. Her accusation was useless without any hard evidence. It was likely that even if he was the original creator, it could be someone else that had taken the attacks to that extreme.

She forced herself to calm down so that she would not do anything stupid like attacking him on sight. The stores should have opened by now, and she had not shopped in Daoganal alley in three years. The last time she was with her mother and father had been in town for business and had brought her. It had been a blast usually she ether inherit the books she needed, or they would pick them up for her. That time she had been free to go into all the stores and look around at everting. They did not have the money to buy much, but they had a great time looking at everting.

Her first stop was going to be the ice cream parlor as it had been the highlight of her last visit. To her dismay, the place had closed. She wondered if the owner was okay. Feeling a bit down, she went to her next stop.

She walked into the pet shop. Most of the animals were afraid of her, and those that did not seem nervous at first ether from the other animals or that she got to close became nervous and restless. She sighed and walked out of there before she caused chaos to erupt. Her next stop was the supply shop, where she pursued a couple of small things. With about an hour left, she decided to go to Weasley's wizard wheezes. On her way there, she saw in the window Ollivander's new assistant a girl in her mid-thirties. It had been quite the news when it had happened that Ollivander had taken on an assistant. She saw that she was talking to the same Hufflepuff that had spoken to the young ministry employee. Which surprised River as it was extremely unusual for anyone being there not purchases a new wand. She did not go in to satisfy her curiosity, as she did not have any business there. Ollivanders was not a place you went in to browse. She put that curiosity behind her as she went on to her next destination.

Weasley's wizard wheezes was not a hard place to find as it radiated light. She had heard from Rosie and her sister that it was even more stunning when it opened two years ago as it had had been a bastion of light for the people in despair. When he who should not be named had starting to gain power, she had heard descriptions from her sister did not make it justice. The effect must have been more significant when he who should not be named first stated to get into power. There was even a poster with a shirt with the text "we defeated Voly you think we cannot do (insert impossible thing here). "Which were charmed so that you could change the (insert impossible thing here) at will. She felt uneasy about the poster. As if it would bring back him by pure daring. She shuttered and walked into the shop.

The inside, whereas she had expected full of joke articles. There where trick wands in several different varieties, sick candy that would make you sick if ate them. Then there were self-correcting ink as well as something new in advice rings which from a fake ruby would shine a light which suggested what to write. At the end of the hall, she saw a big sign saying Love potions under that were another sign "OBS temporally removed. Regrettable fellow tricksters and maidens. We have temporally removed our love potion. It was a joke that would almost imminently lose its effect after consumption. But if the potion was left alone, it grew in potently to a frankly ridiculous degree. As it was the catalyst to our brother almost dying so, we feel the need to take the product down until we can work out the thinks. We apologize and hope that you can find a replacement for the trick you want to pull. Maidens, we think that you might be interested in our word gum, which can get you to hear the word I love you from anyone. Tricksters I advise obsession cola as a replacement. We will try to fix this as fast as possible Yours Freed and George." The last sentence made her feel surprisingly sad. She had never known the twins, but there had always been admiration towards them.

She continued to look alive until she saw something that caught her interest. It was a box with a lens with a book next to it. Under was the name Recordio. Its description told that it was a device that could capture images and store them on a chip. Under this, it said. It is like a video recorder for you muggle-borns exempt you know magic. "

It was perfect with this River could put it into the empty classroom, and when Rosie sensed that he went in, they just had to record it, and if there where any evidence of foul play, they would get him.

She smiled, and that smile broadened as she saw the price tag was still in her price range. She headed to the register as she would probably not afford anything else if River did not go to Gringotts, and she did not have time for that. She just had to satisfy herself with something that might catch the person that poisoned an entire house in which one of the members was her only living family member.

She walked with the camera to the desk with a quick look at the muggle magic. At the desk sat George and browsing the quibble with an amused smile. He looked up, and his smile widens. Well, hello, long time no see roof lady. She smiled back. It was better than the first thought was as a victim of an elaborated joke than that she was a werewolf." He continued, "shouldn't you be in school?" then he smiled and said. "of course you are the one with an eye condition that my mother mentioned. You helped with preventing the Slytherin from dying. I have no love for Slytherin, but to try to kill them all is just" he shook his head. "sorry, I do not remember your name." "it is River Blackwell" "you're Viviana, sister," he nodded with approval ."It could not have been easy. I heard from mother and father that they cured the seventh year last, so that must have been nerve-wracking." she nodded "He looked again at her purchase. "I think I know why you want that. "he pointed at the camera. River knew that her face confirmed his suspicion. "I should probably not sell that to you. You might do something stupid with it." he then looked stunned and was quiet for a second, then suddenly sounded angry and made River jump and take a step back.

"wait, what am I saying? did I, George, just say to someone not to do something stupid. You're probably looking down on me, shaking your head in disbelief that I would betray your legacy like that." she was starting to worry. Then he looked at her with a sad smile "sorry I sound almost like my mother there for a second I will not sell you that recorder" Rivers's heart sank. He gave her a wicked smile like he had had one of the few times River had seen him in Hogwarts." I will give it to you as a reward for working so hard and as an apology for my part in this mess." he pointed at several signs that he had taken down. The one she was able to read said, but two stink bombs and pay for one if you promise to use them on Slytherin" instead, I Will tell you not to get yourself killed and try not to get couth" she smiled "thank you I will try to do both." The only problem will be Filch he might search you as you enter the castle. River shrugged "I can handle him, I am after all his godchild. I think I can get away with much excluding putting mud on the statue of that knight with the duck helmet."

Usually, when she mentions this fact, people got nervous. It was like the mere motion of the name was a summoning and would bring him there. It was not as bad as being a werewolf was, and it passed as they got to know her. The Weasleys face lighten up in a huge grin.

"OH you are, are you. The opportunity to sway his godchild." his smile took on a more somber tone "Man, what an opportunity how Fred would have loved it. We might even have given you the map if we had not given it up". She wanted to ask about the map but felt like it was too personal" With the last sentence, he packed another bag. He insisted that she take it. She usually would argue against getting stuff for free like this, especially as that one of his main reason for doing so she suspected where to get under Filch's skin. But with him mentioning his brother in the conservation, there was no way she could say no.

She walked out with three large bags of stuff. She would need to take inventory but decided to do so after she was in her room. She could always use the defense that she did not know what she had, which was true. She had always been a lousy liar, and she knew that Filch would believe her only if she did not have any idea what she broth into school.

River thought that his excitement where a more significant deterrent then any stern talk could have been. Still there where the anger that flared up from time to time made her determined to try to catch the guilty student. The meeting place was back inside the Leaky Cauldron.

They meet up, and she noticed that Sebastian Foster looked extremely pleased she wondered how well it had gone from him with that ministry employer. He was the only one that did not have any shopping, so she wondered about the meeting in Ollivanders. River had hopping bags where Hermione had a backpack. They were sone joined by the professors that had with them a portkey.

They all touched the portkey. Then after what now was a familiar experience, they were back at Hogwarts. She started to mentally go thought the things she would say to flinch when he searched her. But to her relief, he did not show up. In fact, She saw no one who made the entire school seem creepy. She wondered if this what it felt like at night.

They were meet by the headteachers. McGonigal stopped and turned toward them all again "I just want to say on behalf of Hogwarts, thank you for your hard work. Here is a little token of our appreciation, Fifty points to each one of you. There here some happy mumbling from that, only Hermione seemed unfazed. The headteachers took their students and walked them towards their dorm. On the way, their professor sprout was glowing from pride and kept praising them, with her taking center stage, which made River blush. When they arrived at the dorm, she went over to the armor that where their guardian whispered something, and the door swung open. She looked at their questioning look with an apologetic smile. "I am afraid that we are in a bit of a lockdown for the moment. The password is secret, and only teachers, prefects, and a few trusted students are to know it. The plan is to escort you to and from lessons. But do not worry, everything will return to normal soon" So River had to be looked in their room except for doing lessons for a time. That was something she could handle, and that would give her time to convince Rosie about her plan before bad 1 had time to sneak off to his classroom. She just hoped that he had not decided to switch location as it would make things more difficult. When they walked into the room, the sound of applause greeted them. Which surprised River, then the other Hufflepuff was surrounded by admirers while they stayed clear of her and gave her odd looks. She took the hint to go away. She headed towards the only person that was glad she returned. She felt the loss of fitting in that she had gotten a taste of doing the ordeal. In their common room, she waited. She made two tums up while smiled broody. River returned the smile, her mood significantly improving. Rosie looked at the bags with a questioning look, and she smiled and said, "so who of us should start." She looked at River, and with a look that River knew meant that she should start. River told her almost everything. She retold her about the work with removing the poison. Most of her conservation with Granger and Luna. The despair she had felt when she thought that all hope had disappeared. Her meeting with Gorge and her plan and she to her relief she Rosie agreed to help. She left out her dream as it was too personal to share. She also left out the werewolf weapon project as it was a bit to close to Rosie's own experience.

Then it was Rosie's turn. Probably inspired by River's revelation, she described in detail what it felt to be overwhelmed. She described it as being drowned by the fear and panic of the other students. When she fell unconscious, the feelings turned to nightmares, which description made them even worse than hers usually was. To try alleviating matters, she told of a particular one was with Professor Snape and a potion test where whatever she did, he screamed at her. Rosie wanted to frame it humorously bur River saw from her body language that it had not been at all a comfortable experience.

When she woke up, it was in the middle of the night, and she had to go completely alone. Luckily, she ran into professor Sprout. It was with some amusement that she described the professor's expression when she realized they had forgotten her.

They had been stuck here most of the time except for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All meals were all supervised by several wizards and witches so that the food was not tempered with again.

Rosie had not been able to leave in their common room for extended periods. There was to much fear and anxiety in the other common room. That the only time she had ventured out, she had involuntarily sent out a wave of anger in response. When her tale ended, River pointed at the bags, and a feeling of excitement from Rosie invaded her mind. They had mirrored grins on their faces. They each took a bag and started to take out, showing off what they found.

There where stink bombs and self-correcting ink as well as quill that would correct your penmanship that Rosie took great interest in and tried extensively. She had even got a shield charm with could come in handy, then Rosie held up something for her to see with a peculiar smile. River face dropped, then cursed George in a manner River had never in her young life done, and Rosie started laughing. He had given her fifteen vials of love potion; she was fuming, and Rose was on the floor laughing. Her joy was making it almost impossible to keep the anger.

She took a note that was attached to the potion box and read it saliently for herself.

"Loved Dovi version two. Still, a bit too expensive to make, and the potions last a bit too long. They are still legal, but they are too far out of the joke category for my taste. They will not grow stronger with age. Instead, they will last for about fifteen years give or take Fred" when did he have time to write this latter, she wondered. her companion was still laughing after she finished reading the note. "What is so funny anyway?" she said. Rosie compensates herself long enough to respond with "picturing you using that potion on someone "she stopped herself unable to find the word the just shrugging. It diminished her annoyance enough that Rosie's joy overwhelmed her, and she started laughing.

River thought that it was probably a compliment, or at least that was how she decided to take it. The rest of the evening, they planed for the week to follow. She just hoped that their victim was as anxious to get to the classroom as she was to get him there.


	9. Chapter 9

It was not until late afternoon they were they had an opportunity to put the camera in the classroom in a sufficiently hidden place. They were fortunate for within three hours after they had placed it, Rosie felt him coming close to the room, and they activated the device.

They sat a bit apart with a screen each as he walked to the door and muttered some charms. River guessed Probably a magical lock charm and something to prevent sound from escaping. Luckily it did not interfere with their signal or steam of magic or whatever made it so that they had an image on the screens.

He then took out a pocket watch and pointed and, with careful pronunciation, said." We are the true Hogwarts. We will never surrender." Several silver orbs and one golden orb floated up from the watch. They started pulsing, and a voice that had voice filter said, "welcome Falcon. We were worried that you would not make it." "Sorry for being late Phoenix, I had to make sure that no one followed me. They suspect that it was most likely a Hufflepuff that poisoned the food as we have the easiest access to the kitchen." all pretense of calm left him. He showed real rage and fear and almost screamed "where is Dragon?, Was he supposed to use that kind of insane poison, there could have been mass death, you promised that no one would die" The other silver orbs muttered in agreement.

One voice standing out starting to say something but stopped several times, "I had a plan to ... I know my role, but I cannot do it with this. There is no way this story can..." they stopped. The Phoenix was silent for a second before speaking," "there were no fatalities as I predicted. I had everything under control. The newspaper is overdramatizing what happened to draw more sympathy for the snakes" Falcon bowed his head, sorry Phoenix. I am just a bit nervous, that is all." Phoenix answered with, "It is natural to doubt. If Harry Ron and Hermione had not doubted anything, they would never have killed Voldemort. But you need to practice controlling your emotions, or we might lose you" "so what is the next step Phoenix" another sliver orb said." It is simple now when the snakes are away. We go to ground as we prepare for phase three. I will send the next time and place to your devices, and we will meet in about three to four weeks. Until then, you all needed to be careful not to get caught." Falcon smiled "they will never catch us" The last line made River smile, and she thought how wrong he was.

Their first order of business was to back up the footage they had, and as it was copying the footage to another disk, they started to discuss what they had witnessed. "Well, it seemed to me that the leader was playing the rest for fools," Rosie said with her excitement being unfiltered and effecting River much. River retorted with, "or it could be that the leader only gave the instruction to poison the student and did not care what poison they used." They discussed it for a bit before they left. They took with them the camera and one of the screens.

They went in search of a teacher; it did not take them long to find one. The first one they found was Flitwick. He seemed to be heading to the teacher's lounge after a lesson. Perfect River thought. They ran to him.

She was about to smile, but remember the little girl she refrained and approached him with her best natural expression. Still, she was unable to remove the excitement of her voice as she asked for his time. Flitwick raised his eyebrows, noticing their excitement "in privet," she added. They walked to an empty classroom, and he turned to them, "so what do you want to show me" They explained how the play function worked, and she took some satisfaction with his shocked expression as he watched the video. His first question was, how did they record it? They explained how the device worked to the best of their ability. Her first attempt to clarify using a video camera as a base comparison resulted in a blank stare. She sighed inside and restarted her explanation.

After they had explained it so that he understood it, his next question was, did they get this device? When she answered where she had gotten it. he smiled," of course." He said with obvious affection in his voice. His next question was about how they had known where to film. River looked at Rosie that nodded, so she described how Rosie had felt his satisfaction at the scene he had made. Then how she had kept tabs on him and noticed him going to the classroom often. "I did not know you had such a range. "Flitwick said in an impressed tone. River looked at Rosie That gestured. "Strong emotion and pain are easier to pick up. Is an emotional person full of anger and hatred." To Flitwick, she said, "Strong emotion is easier to feel."

Well, I think you will have to say everting again because I feel the headmistress will want to hear it. "he told a bit helplessly.

They went to the headmistress office River had never been there, and neither had Rosie, and both were extremely nervous. Flitwick gave Rosie a reassuring smile as she could not contain it completely. They walked until they came to a gargoyle and stopped "wait here," Flitwick said with the tone of someone that just realized he did not have an appointment. He walked to the gargoyle and said something that must have been a password as it jumped aside, and a stairwell appeared. He then walked as briskly up as his size permitted. He was soon out of sight. They waited for around three minutes until he walked down a bit so that they could see him and waved them over. They went up the stairwell almost two steps at a time, leaving Flitwick behind.

They arrived in the headmistress office, and the first thing she noticed was the former headmasters looking on them with curious. Her eyes fell on Dumbledore, and her heart stung and memories, tried to dislodge itself from her mind. Then her eyes went to McGonagall, and she momentary froze. Her face was a mask impossible to read. Flitwick handed her the screen, and he went over to McGonagall and instructed in its use.

McGonagall looked at the entire video in questions then asked the same questions as Flitwick. To Rivers's delight, McGonagall seemed to know how a video camera worked, so the first question was easy to explain. When she answered were had gotten it from, she said, "of course only them could make something like this as a prank tool she shook her head. If we had this device a couple of years ago, a lot of trouble might have been avoidable." The next step how they knew or gest she nodded "then your power work simpler to how you can feel pain" this stunning both of them a bit McGonagall smiled and said "I did some research into alumasi a few years back to see if I could help another student with a problem he had. I am afraid I do not have a talent for it, and then things eat up my time, so I never had the time than actually learning it before it became a non-problem" They both nodded.

McGonagall looked at them sternly and said:" I first want to ask you about your conclusions on all of this." She looked at them in turn. River looked at Rosie and answered with, "well, I think the leader is either lying, and he wanted to take out Slytherin, or that Dragon went rouge. If someone Would make even the simplest of research into this poison that should realize that it is extremely hazardous and not something that is a harmless prank." McGonagall nodded the sighed. She turned to Rosie, which pointed at River and made the sign for ide. River continued, "or it might be that he just instructed the member to poison the students and did not care which poison they used" She looked at Rosie that gave her a thumbs up.

McGonagall was quiet for a second before saying, "Well, I first want to thank you for giving this to us and not trying to take matters into your own hands. I need some time to think over the best way to approach this. I do not think I need to say this but not a word to anyone of this." She stared at them both, and they nodded again. She sighed. I will not lie. This could be the break we have been waiting for, and it might be the key to take them all down. I will stress this does not do this sort of thing again. I will not punish you. I will probably reward you when this is over. Until then, I do not want any more investigation.

"They both nodded River knew that in a fight, she would be at a huge disadvantage as she had trouble with expelliarmus, and Rosie had a hard time casting spells as she was mute. She nodded. "One more thing, could I borrow the camera and could you tell me how to operate it." River nodded and began expanding how the device worked. After she explained where the camera was, McGonagall nodded. "I will get one of the house-elves to get it latter. Smart of you not to receive it yourself. Now I need to go back to work. Again, thank both of you and do nothing stupid. We will handle it from here" They both nodded for what felt like the tenth time and walked out of there.

She only then realized why she had two monitors. It was almost like Gorge had expected this. But that was probably giving him too much credit River thought. They now could tap into McGonagall recording if they wanted, or they could use a second one to spy on their own. The problem was that if they wanted to use their camera, they had to disconnect it from the first one. They had to choose between spying or being able to spy on their own. They decided to spy as they both recognized their inability to fight with magic. They decided to let the adults handle things from here and using the device to keep themselves informed.

What McGonagall would decide to do took three days of agonizing waiting. When several students, including Oscar, suddenly falling il with a highly contentious form of Severan fever and had to be insolated. This was brilliant as there were eyewitnesses that saw him collapse, and they made it look genuine with several other that River assumed was volunteers. The only reason River and Rosie knew it happened was that they noticed a new recording.

The record started with Oscar already drugged and in a hospital bed. In the room were professor Sprout, McGonagall Hermione granger, and a short man with dark heir River did assume someone from the ministry, by the way, he dressed. Under the who should not be named rain, a lot of the regulation had been completely removed. It had not been a priority for the new ministry to change. River did not think that they used even a fraction of what was still allowed. Still, she imaged that they wanted the wiggle room in case of an emergency. McGonagall, where the one leading the interrogation "are you a member of true Hogwarts?" Oscar answered monotony, "yes." There was some excitement River wondered how many of them had doubted her or even suspecting her of falsifying evidence. McGonagall continued, "What is true, Hogwarts?" "it is a movement to rid this school of the corruption that is Slytherin and anything that could harm its future." "How many members are there?" "There are nine members." "What is their name?" "Do not know we only use code names." "What are their code names?" "Sparrow, Spider Butterfly, Dog, Cat, Rat, Dragon, Falcon, and Phoenix." "Do you have any suspicion on who can be a member as well?" "No," McGonagall nodded, showing no emotion "what about the objects" "they are unique to each member. They can send and receive messages. They can have a conference call or individual calls with Phoenix," he uses that to give people individual missions" What where you mission hemione asked." My mission where to pant the message, then there was three separate mission to harass Slytherin. So what was the plan in it entirely hemione said: "make it so that there is a big gap in people that are sorted to Slytherin so that its corrupt culture disappear so it can be reborn.". They looked at the watch and decided to call it for the day.

They would continue the interrogation tomorrow. They turned off the recording and River, and Rosie missed their follow up discussion. They had their decision on what had happened, and both felt extremely uncomfortable about it. The plan itself River thought were stupid as how they would influence the rebuilding of Slytherin was still a mystery. Rosie pointed out that the people did not care about the reconstruction. They just wanted to punish them for what they and more impotently what their parents had done.

She had to agree Slytherin appeared to have a significant cultural problem. Not all Slytherin were death eaters but enough that they made up the majority of them. Rosie thought it might be possible to remove Salsar Slytherin's influence for a time, but as one of the founders of Hogwarts, he would always influence the school even if it diminished for a while.

She wondered how they were recruited if they did not even know the leader's name. The nature of the group meant that it would almost be impossible to get all of them without getting their leader. She considered it might be enough if they got Dragon. She was pretty sure that Phoenix was too smart not to do basic research on the poison he was using. It also seemed to be far to much work over the school year if the plan had been to kill them all.

They speculated on what questions they would ask him at the next integration. River thought that they would ask how he got recruited so that they would have a base to search for the others. Rosie thought that they first would focus on trying to get as much information on Phoenix as possible to try to identify the student and ending it all in one fell swoop.

They had this discussion in the open as no one else understood sign langue. Did make it so that they could be speaking Swedish for what the rest of the students knew about their conservation. Also, the sheer number of different aids and magic made it so that it was extremely rare for someone not to be able to use any of them. The day processes slowly. It was good that she was able to focus for today where cheering charms. Which was something she had wanted to do for a long time. She was able to do it on her first try, and she was able to control the charm's time and intensity. Flitwick looked extraordinarily pleased and said, "it is the first time in 15 years. I have seen one being able to perform that well on their first try. Ten points to Hufflepuff" River blushed and blurted out, "what about Hermione granger?" Flitwick looked thought full and said," OH, she missed that lesson. Still, I am not a hundred percent sure she would have managed what you just did. Take some pride in that" the rest of the day River glowed.

Rosie got similar praise at Potion. She was a natural and even if River was good at Potion, she thought it was her second-best subject. She was nowhere near Rosie. There where almost no lesson that she did not get praise. River worked hard in Potion as it was her small hope to get good enough to be able to make the wolfbane on her own. Even if it was a remote possibility that she ever would be good enough to be able to do that, several times, they caught Slughorn looking at them with a thoughtful expression. The day was no different, but it was replaced with wonderment as he looked at how Rosie's and Rivers Potion went.

" It was another thing that showed how bad a teacher Snape had been." She gestured to Rosie as they had a break between Potion and transfiguration. This was not something she felt like she could speak out aloud. It was not something nice to say about someone that was considered a hero. When Rosie nodded, she continued, "I mean, would you ever consider that you where this prodigy of Potion under Snape, Hey it was my worst subject after transfiguration but is now my second best. The greatest reason is he was not able to create a place where people could feel safe and focus. As that is one of the key elements of Potion." Rosie nodded again

They had run out of things to talk about and then waited in silence for the day to end. They returned to their place exited, and River felt it doubly as Rosie failed to contain her emotion. They saw that they had a new recording. They headed to Rosie's room. It was similar to River except for a poster of the muggle band Metallica as well as brand new manga.

They headed to her bed and sat down, and the blanket over them huddle together so both could see then River pressed play. They had forgotten to press record at the start of the interrogation, so they missed the beginning. River felt the ridiculous notion to lecture McGonagall about it. It seemed that they both had been wrong. The first thing they did was that they mapped out every meeting they had had. With a focus on who had not been able to attend the meeting at what times. Which River conceded made sense. If they knew exactly when the meeting took place, that could see what regular activities prevented people from attending. It probably was the best plan to rote out the remaining members. They also had him recount the very first meeting and, in particular, how the Phoenix spoke." River felt a bit disappointed with the second day as she felt that they had not learned very much, and it was only three to five days before people would suspect that something else was going on. They could she suspect say that his case of Severan fever had become more severe and move him to St mungo's. That would also raise suspicion the way they were doing it now would prevent them from suspecting that anything was going on. It was not her decision that she had to trust that the grown-up knew what they were doing. She did not feel that hatred towards Oscar; it was directed entirely to Dragon and Phoenix as either one or both had tried to kill her sister. She realized she did not care about what happened to the rest of them.


	10. Chapter 10

The week started poorly with the care of magical beasts in which they had the assignment to take care of Fev Foxes. The Fev Foxes looked like a combination of Foxes and trees with bark colored fur and leaf green eyes. Their eyes would change as the season changed to reflect the color of the leaves. In England, their eyes would turn the same color as their fur. She had heard that their eyes turned completely white in the northern part of Scandinavia. They were wary by nature and could camouflage themselves so well it was almost impossible to see them.

The foxes were avoiding her; in fact, her presence made them so uncomfortable that none could get them to calm down. They were together in a heap and did not stop hiding until she walked some distance away. Different animals reacted to a werewolf in unique ways. Most of them ignored a werewolf. Some responded with hostility, and some like the foxes with fear. It made the subject tricky as there was no record of how they reacted, so every new creature was a new trial. Hagrid had made it his habit to stand next to her during the lesson. Before, the disposition of the beast could be determined.

In this situation, Rosie's power where an actual boon for once as she could project a calm thought and calm most of the foxes down. The lesson went back to normal with the other starting to get the foxes to trust them and allowing them to take care of their fur. River felt a twinge of envy as the foxes looked adorable. They let the others pet them and even hold them as they brushed their coat. Care of magical beasts was Rosie's third-best subject. Her power was for once beneficial if she remained calm. Which she most of the time did except when creatures reacted aggressively towards River, then she would sometimes panic and made the entire situation worse.

River felt trapped in the class as she did not enjoy the subject. She was fascinated by some creature like dragons, but they were for obvious reasons not on the lesson plan. She was enjoying the obvious delight Rosie took in the class, which made it bearable and made it, so she was able to hide her disinterest from her. If she left the class, Rosie would be on her own and only have her clumsily write bord to communicate. There was a charm that translated thought into words, but Rosie was still maybe two or three years from being able to perform it as it was a complicated charm. There was also the problem of her needing to do the magic nonverbal, which further made things harder for her and made Rosie determined to succeed in the subjects in which spellcasting was not a significant feature.

Her second lesson for the day was transfiguration, where she managed to transform her teacup to a flamingo instead of the intended coffeepot. A feat that if it had been intentional would have been extremely impressive. She was unable to consecrate, and the entire lesson went by without her succeeding once. Which made it so that she was given the assessment as homework and that she had until her next lesson to practice it, which River felt incredibly embarrassed.

Then when the school day was finally over, it was time to watch another tape. They made a bet on what they would ask fist and decided to bet one of the joke articles that she had gotten from George. It seemed the minister of magic himself had made an appearance. He finished a talk with Madam Pomfrey, and as the camera went live and he then promptly went silent. Still, River saw that it seemed to have been some kind of argument, and she was able to pick up her name. To Rivers, slight annoyance, and Rosie's delight, the first thing they did was that they tried to map out the meetings and at what times people had to reschedule. To try to see if he gave up some clue of any of the other member's identities. She wrote down what she thought was the most important and knew that she would watch this again and take more detailed notes. Phoenix had been on every meeting and had never asked to reschedule a meeting that Oscar could remember. Spider had missed two and one of them, which narrowed the number of people as it had been an emergency cancellation when the puddle accident had accrued. River noted the rest of the days were rescheduling

The next topic was how he got recruited. Which had been River guess and made her slightly more annoyed. If they had started with it, she would not have Rosie looking all smug next to her. The recruitment for Oscar was that he first found a letter with instructions on. The later was charmed in such a way that worked like two people could write it at once.

The group started as a group that was going to make sure that Slytherin did not forget last year. It was relative quickly transformed into True Hogwarts. It lost several members before the transition was complete. They finally signed a contract, which stipulated that they would not willingly reveal any information about True Hogwarts except if they already knew the secrets. They had other inquires, which resulted in very little substance River thought except that Spider had been against the poisoning from the very start. He used the reasoning that it was too hard for it not to be the story of poisoning an entire house.

Granger smiled and said, "It looks like they made their first big mistake. The contract likely has similar aspects to the one we used with Dumbledore Army. So, if they break the contract, they will be cursed in a way that obvious enough that they will notice it. They phrased it in such a way that It does not activate with truth serum. With the memory gap charm, he cannot reflect on the fact that he is giving out information. That will give us some time to ….". Granger continued, but Rivers' mind did not follow it the memory gap charm where one of the doctors' favorite and had been used on her and others on several occasions.

It reconstituted everting in her mind, and memories tried to go up to the surface and were consumed by the charm before they had a chance of resurfacing. River felt sick and stood up; suddenly, it was all too similar to her own experience.

She was tapped on the shoulder by Rosie and that and looked at her with concern. That she was unable to contain, she tried for a smile but only felt sicker and said, "sorry, I do not feel so good that charm where used on me from time to time when I was …". She did not have to finish that sentence Rosie just nodded and let her go to her room and lay down. She drank her dreamless potion and lay in bed, waiting to go to sleep.

She was unable to watch the following days recording and had Rosie write down what they had learned. Rosie had taken great effort to make them as readable as possible. It seemed like the well had dried up, and new relevant information was hard to extract from Oscar.

The time came for them to make another the cabins trip, which meant that she would be in the dark with how the investigation was proceeding. The day before they went, there were no new recording. They both assumed that they had given up and moved on, which made River fell like ill. The thing she had uncovered was not good enough to catch the real monsters of dragon and Phoenix. It was with low hopes that they wandered to the designated port key site. It was not until they already were at the cabin that she realized that it was a good thing that they had not taken the pad with them. It was not in range here, and she was not sure if it would reconnect automatically to the device when they returned.

She drank her wolfbane potion. Her escorts left as soon as she put the bottle back at the table. She was surprised that they had not said anything about Oscar. Which she thought meant that they had decided not to release him. It would have been prudent to tell her if that was what they had planned so that she could mentally prepare herself before returning to the castle. They started finished their homework by the first day at noon. Then it was leisure time where they tried to distract themself from the investigation.

Rosie looked up potion recipe when River took time off from practicing expelliarmus to practice the strength charm. She felt the need to justify herself to Rosie as she was looking at her with a skeptical expression. River had to agree that yes, this was something that River probably never would have any real use. It was both harder and more dangerous than a levitation charm, and finally, she still had trouble with expelliarmus, which was a more effective way to defend oneself and one that was on the exams. Finely she confessed that the only reason that she wanted to learn the charm was she thought it was cool, which Rosie accepted with a shrug.

With her natural affinity for charms, it went a lot smoother than her counter jinx training. She knew she wanted to master this when she was able to pick up a large rock and throw it a fair distance away.

They had made a pack try not to talk about the investigation. It was hard as it seemed to affect every aspect of their lives. Rosie had moved closer to Rivers cabin with the rational as she could not get away from the pain, and as she now knew what it felt like, it would not bother her. Her transformation had become routine at this point. A painful and surprising boring routine, one as the wolfbane removed her fear of the transformation. It was strange what one could get used too.

Madam Pomfrey came the day after she transformed. River had to suppress her urge to ask about things she really should not have any business knowing. River was as always exhausted after a transformation. Pomfrey seemed to be under a lot of stress and not her usual self. It did not help that River stared at her as something tried to connect in her mid. Pomfrey's movement was stiff, and she was noticeably uncomfortable with River's examination. Still, she could not help herself something made her uncomfortable

.

She puzzled this new development as madam Pomfrey did her usually check-up. She was then taking her sister's job to remove all the heir on her left arm. She looked forward to the time she could do it on her own and did not have to rely on someone else. She tried to be relaxed, but something felt wrong as Pomfrey went over and removed the heir from her arm, restoring it to a state in which it could conceal the strange of her arm.

Pomfrey looked at River and smiled and, with a warm, friendly voice, said, "cheer up saddens and frowns do not make a cake." It finally connected in Rivers' head. She knew what had bothered her since Pomfrey had arrived and backed away as far away as she could manage suddenly terrified. She looked at Madam Pomfrey in a new light. She recognized the shape of her eyes and nose. The memories of the female scientist that was not blocked scream at her. That expression was that women's favorite and River had heard it on numerous occasions

. She stared at Pomfrey, her mind refusing to work probably as it over and over tried to access information that was blocked. It was the first time she felt disturbed by the charm that blocked her memories. Pomfrey, on the other hand, looked at her in complete shock, then realization dawned on her, and she said, "I see that that was one of her favorite expressions. Sorry I have had reasons to think about that vile person as I have been using one of the charms that she invented." River started to calm down. She asked, "did she invented the memory gap charm?" before realizing that it might give her away. Madam Pomfrey looked at her not with suspicion but with genuine sadness and said, "yes, it was supposed to help people with difficult operations. It has a much more nefarious application, and I think that was her intention for the charm in the first place." River had to ask, "are you related?" Madam Pomfrey answered after a short pause, "sadly, she is my cousin, and I will never forgive myself for not realizing what kind of person she was earlier."

River tried to relax and moved back towards Pomfrey. She knew that Madam Pomfrey was a good person and that it must be difficult for her. She touched her shoulder with her normal hand and with as a firm voice as she could manage, "I do not blame you in the slightest. I was overwhelmed with your physical resemblance and that phrase. It caught me completely off guard." Madam Pomfrey smiled and said, "thank you."

There was an awkward silence as neither seems to know what to say next. Finally, Pomfrey stood up and said, "I must be going now" she was about to leave, then she turned around and with an odd expression and with an awkward tone said, "do you have plans for summer?". That question took River complete by surprise, and it took a couple of seconds to say, "No, I do not have anything planned at the moment." Madam Pomfrey gave her a pained look and said, "I have been instructed to tell you that there might be an opportunity for you to help the ministry with a sensitive problem. It is nothing concrete yet, and it is completely your choice. If anyone tries to pressure you even if it is the magister of magic himself tell me and I will bash their head in" River nodded gratefully for Pomfrey the last word, and she could not put the finger on it, but something about that did not sit right with her.

She turned around to leave again when River blurted out, "my sister, how is she.?" Madam Pomfrey smacked herself on the forehead. "How could I forget; your sister is on the recovering they think they can bring her out of her coma within the weak. I will inform you when you can visit her. "thank you," River said, and she left.

She felt the fatigue came back in full force after Pomfrey left. She, fortunately, made it back to her bed before collapsing. She had already consumed the dreamless potion, so she fell into a peaceful slumber. After she woke up and felt a bit better, she and Rosie meet. Rosie could sense that something was bothering. She had probably felt everting that had happened Madam Pomfrey. River knew her friend was worried about what had happened, so she gave her the summarized version of the events.

When they returned, they expected that there would have been lite development on the investigation. River and Rosie were wrong. There had been five arrests, which meant that there were four left. Excluding Oscar, It was one more Hufflepuff Eli Wright. Then a Ravenclaw named Bonnie May as well as twins from Gryffindor named Ethan and Romeo Webb. The Ravenclaw had been taken down by Luna. The two Gryffindor had tried to take on Hermione in a dual, and she had defeated them quickly.

River was amazed that in less than a week, they had arrested several people. They returned to the dorm and started to look on the tapes. The first tape was not an interrogation but a discussion. It looked like all the teacher and Granger was there. McGonagall started with, "we cannot let Oscar go, and I think that the assumption that dragon went rogue and that the original plan was a mild poisoning which would be perfect as a warning. It also seems like they have deactivated the objects. Even those we have borrowed from other members are all deactivated. We think that the leader is going to ground. So, we should arrest the ones we know of and watch the ones we suspect of any weird movement as we continue to search for Phoenix and Dragon."

She then explained in more detail how exactly she would accomplish this. They were looking at the testimonies of the other Members. There were a lot of similarities and with every capture. They had quickly identified the similarities made a profile in which they easily identified almost all the members. It seemed to consist of year 4-6 and be people that lost one or more members of their family in the previous year. They had expressed anger at the start of the year. Which manifests itself in all sorts of pranks or otherwise aggressive behavior. Which suddenly disappeared, and they seemed to draw away from their friends.

There were only four members left the Spider, dragon, Butterfly, and Phoenix. All of them were probably trying right now to stay as low as possible. She wondered about Phoenix. He or she had been able to know which people to recruit correctly and skills to put a couple of sophisticated charms on several objects. The Phoenix must be either a 6 or 7, years maybe five, if they were at the level of Hermione, which River did not think, was possible.

River was sure that this thought had come to Granger and the other teachers and that they were looking for just that sort of person. River felt like her ability to do something of value had been long over. It was soon Charismas, and River got an early gift as the date when she could visit her sister arrived.


	11. Chapter 11

It was at the beginning of December it was raining slightly. She and the rest of the students that had family members in Slytherin arrived by portkeys. Most of them were able to keep their balance, but some fell. River felt a bit smug as she easily held her balance as the other strode up from the muddy ground and stood in line as Slughorn helped remove the mud.

They waited a bit, and then a red double-decker bus arrived to take them closer to x. People were, as usual, making sure that they were as far as possible from River. She made it easy for them and took a seat in the back. The bus moved at a leisurely pace. It went thought gapes between cars, so it went in a rhythm that should have been impossible in London. The inside was keeping its dimension, but the outside seemed to warp. It nauseating for River to look outside. So she tried to keep watching forwards luckily hanging over the seat were a charm that prevented the worst nausea.

River decided to pay a visit to Weasley Wizard Weasleys if there was enough time after her visit. She wanted to give him an update as River thought that it might cheer him up. They stopped at a bus station close to the hospital and walked the rest of the way.

The atmosphere there was charged with nervous energy. The teachers had warned that the poison had taken a toll on the victims. No one spoke, and it was quite a grim procession that made its way to the hospital. Inside they were meet with another group, which consisted of the family members that did not attend Hogwarts. Most of the students went to meet with family members. She was surprised by the number that did not have any family members present, which meant that either they were not able to take time off or that they had passed away.

There were a lot of stares and a few pointed fingers by the children. They started to mutter, and the children began to hide behind the parents. Before anything could escalate, the student managed to calm them down. A nurse luckily arrived shortly after and led them away. River was avoided even by her fellow lone students, as was the norm.

They arrived in a section that housed the Slytherins. It was a large rectangular room that seemed to stretch out forever with beds on either side with sheaths as barriers between them. There was a red rose next to every bed table with a peculiar scent. That seemed to fill her with energy.

They walked through the room, and as they arrived at their family members, they broke off from the group. River briefly wondered what happened when there was more than one family member here. Her answer came quickly. A family of three removed a sheet allowing them to visit two siblings. The solution was so apparent that River felt ashamed that she had not immediately thought of it.

She finally arrived at her sister's bed, and she parted with the now much smaller group. Vivi was reading a book, and Rivers's heart sank a bit, seeing her. She still had the black lips, and there was the faintest discoloring of her skin. Her muscle that Vivi had worked so hard for had disappeared. She seemed so frail, which was never something River had associated before with her sister.

When she saw River, she beamed and put in a bookmark and closed the book. Vivi smiled, "there is my knight in shining armor." Her voice was week, sill she seemed to be better than River had feared. She almost cried it felt so good to hear her sisters voice again. She resisted the urge to run and hug her sister. Her sister had never been a hugging person. Instead she returned the smile and noticing that the book was her Defense against the dark arts book. Pointed at the book and said, "aren't you a bit to studious?" Vivi's smile turned even broader, and she answered, "Well I have plans on what I want to do after I graduate, and they cannot wait a year." River knew what her sister wanted her to ask, and she knew from that tone what her answer would and said: "What plans?" As predicted, her sister only smiled. Then she switched the subject with the question, "how is going with transfiguration?" River sighed and told her about the flamingo incident. Which made her sister laugh so hard that she started to cough and had to stop.

They talked about what had happened, avoiding anything about River's involvement in the investigation. When she told her about the arrests, she had to stop herself from saying how many there were left. That information could expose her. When she had finished, her sister got a somber look and asked: "how is your defense against the dark arts going?" River deflected the question with her learning the strength charm. It made her sister smile, but then she turned serious again and waited for River to continue. River confessed that she had a problem with Expelliarmus. Her sister nodded and said, "I think you should look into Petrificus Totalus."

They talked for about a half-hour more. After River told her about the praise for her cheer charm, she noticed that her sister started to look tired. Then there was an announcement that it was time to leave. They said goodbye, and River promised to visit again as soon as she was able.

There was still enough time before they would go back for her to do her planned visit too Weasley Wizard Weasleys. She noticed one of the students pointing at her and asking a question to the rest of the loners. They almost all of them shook their head and practically dragged the person away. River felt happy as she guessed that the girl had asked if they should invite her to whatever they had planned.

She arrived at Weasley Wizard Weasleys she still felt uncomfortable when she saw the advertisement for the Voldi shirt. She was a bit surprised that it was always front and center. She was in luck it seemed that the only person there was George. He gave her a tired smiled when he saw her and said. "Well if it is not my second favorite werewolf of all time. how Is the camera working for you?" She wondered how much to tell him. She decided to throw caution to the wind and decided to tell him almost everything. She told him about the recording and the meeting with Flitwick and McGonagall. That they used the same words in a completely different context when she had said them were, she had acquired the device seemed to be highly amusing to the George.

When River got to the part when the camera got confiscated, he said: "it was the reason I gave you two." River gave him a grin and said "well that would be well and good if I did not use the second monitor to record all the interrogations that McGonagall was conducting" a genuine laugh came from him, and when he could speak again he said, "we will make you a prankster yet."

She continued not wanting him to realize that he had said we "the investigation has come to a standstill there are four members left Dragon, Spider, Butterfly, and Phoenix. They are probably trying to find Phoenix as with him. They can easily capture the rest. I am unsure of what I can do now to not get in the way." George was salient for a second before asking, "what do you know about their leader" She told him everting that he or she was talented with charms that they were able to target a specific demographic easily. George said, "Well, that person might exist, but I think it is more likely that they probably are the ones that came up with the charm and outsourced the rest to someone with expertise. The thing that I am unsure of is how they planned to affect the Slytherins culture.

They talked about stuff for about ten minutes. Then River walked out of there with a bag full of free goodies. She checked the clock and realized that she had to hurry to get back to the rest of them in time. It was a heavy breathing River that joined the rest of the returning students.

She thought about what Gorge had said as she and the rest of the students made their way back. Could it be that someone other than Phoenixhat had recruited the rest of the members? River thought It needed to be someone leader knew had access to a lot of people. When she returned, she saw that there were new recordings with the captured members. She briefly wondered why it had taken so long to perform the investigation. To her slight disappointment, there were no new bombshells in the statements. It seemed like they did not use truth serum and let them talk normally.

The only thing they knew about Dragon was that he had stolen the poison and probably a dagger from the death eaters. It was hard to say anything about them, according to the others. He rarely spoke If it was not necessary. She decided to put all her efforts towards Spider and spent days going over the recordings with notes precisely what the rest had said about Spider. They were the voice of moderation. The person that seemed to be almost as much of a leader as Phoenix sometimes. They also were conserved with how things looked, and it was their responsibility to change the Slytherins. Which River thought would be impossible as he was not a member, or they would be at st mungo's. She toyed with the idea that it might be a teacher but decided it was unlikely when she looked at the schedule of the meetings. It was not impossible as not many things were with magic utilized by a skilled user, but it was improbable.

Then River hit a wall and could not proceed further. She had gotten a new monitor for the second camera but had no idea where she could use it. She also had the extendable ears to be able to overhear conservations but again had nowhere she could use them. In her desperation, she decided to do something stupid and did not take the Dreamless potion on purpose. She fell asleep after a long while as she drifted the familiar visage of the female scientist now, she could see the parts that resembled Madam Pomfrey. She smiled and said in her usual warm voice" you would willingly come to mee just to satisfy a curiosity. Nothing will change if you help them catch Spider or not. If they get Phoenix, they get Spider. Phoenix is too careful for Spider to know anything. At best, you will achieve nothing, and at worse, you will be in the way. The scientist smiled. Then River fell into a black hole that became red with blood and filled with the smell of burnt flesh. She heard laughter, and suddenly there were her old friends that threw rocks at her, and her sister strode in Infront of her, and River was unable to move and had to watch as they stoned her sister to death. She woke up screaming. When she had finally calmed down, she scolded herself for ever thinking that had been a good idea.

Then she admitted to herself that she had run out of ideas and had to stop until she got her head back into the game. She had even considered asking Rosie to invade people's minds but quickly disgraced the ideas impractical and immoral. She considered switching her focus to the other three but decided that for the time being, she would leave them to the professional.

She had to admit it to herself that the only reason that she was doing this was so that she did not feel helpless in catching her sisters and the entire Slytherins house would-be assassins. Charismas was approaching, and River was not close to a break in the Spider case. She said goodbye to Rosie. She was going to spend her Christmas with her parents, who made River feel lonely. There would be a lot more people than usual spending their holiday here as many had lost their parents to the death eater. She forced herself to do other things then going over the Spider case again. First, she completed the manga Rosie had borrowed her. She trained her for a while expelliarmus but decided to do something else instead and was able to add Petrificus Totalus to her repertoire. River found it more comfortable than expelliarmus. Still, she was not sure it was effective until she tried it on a living person.

After a couple of days, she finely allowed herself back on the Spider case. Fist, she considered what she had so far. What she knew for surety was that he probably was one of the fifty students effected by the puddle disaster as it fits right in with the timeline. She had gotten a copy of the issue of the School paper, which had interviewed several students. Then there had been one more incident where he could not show up. As well as a time, they had to reschedule again, after another suggested time did not work out for them.

Her mind came back to the sentence I had a plan to ... I know my role, but I cannot do it with this. There is no way this story can...". Spider seemed to be the one that had the best sense of what should be good publicity, and even if phoenix or dragons stunt had been regular poison, he was the one that except for the moral reasons pointed out that it would gain extreme negative backlash.

Rive felt like a bombshell had just exploded inside her head. Why not take a page from the ministry three years ago and how they turned Dumbledore and Harry Potter into a foolish old man and liar. She looked at the newest issue of the holiday's events. They printed it before the staff went on holiday. Three people worked there was the photographer Brodie Gordon the editor Eddie Green and their reporter Aden Hill.

Of the three people working here, she could already take out Brodie Gordon as he where on the Gryffindor quidditch team, which gave him an alibi for two meetings as they had trained during one of them and a match during another. The editor would not have been on the site. That left Aden Hill River felt ecstatic she might have solved the identity of Spider. Then her mood turned somber Spider was most likely Aden.

She should give her conclusions to McGonagall, but she liked Aden. He had been supportive of her, which made him unique from almost entirely of the other students. She reminded herself not to get ahead of herself. First, she needed to find a connection between Aden and the others. To do that, she headed to the library. There she found copies of the last year's newspaper that had been charmed to view the real massage. There were no names, but she was able to find enough commonality in their speech pattern and situation to be sure that he had interview four of the members. There was also a habit of using spider language, something that would no necessary be obvious if you did no have such a large sample size ha River had. There were "their web of lies. We need to spring our threads of resistance firm. It is the patient spider that". It gave her a strong enough case to turn into McGonagall. Then she would be incredibly smart or a fool. If he just would turn himself in, then he might receive a lighter sentence, and River realized that it might not be too late for Aden. She could confront him and try to make him see reason and turn himself in.

Rosie would return in a couple of days as her parents work as nurses did not allow them to spend that much time with their daughter. Christmas day she spent with her sister. It was a strange Christmas. It was full of people she did not know, and it felt awkward witnessing something so privet.

River and Vivi where discussing everting and nothing, and she looked much better. She would be able to leave next week. The decision was that until they were able to catch the rest of the members, the Slytherin would have their education on a secret site. They were unable to do their usual routine, and River gave her present today when instead of two weeks after which had been the norm in heir household. It was an economically sound alternative, something that her mother always liked. It had been awkward speaking about it to others, so most of the time, she had just lied when someone asked. Vivi had done the same, and they both reflected with shame on their past behavior.

River gave Vivi a daydreaming charm that she had gotten from Weasleys Wizarding Weasleys. Her sister playfully hit her on the arm and said, "and here I have nothing to give you" Rive smiled and said, "you recovering is all that I need." Her sister gave her a salute in response, and they started to reminisce on past Christmas. She wondered what her sister would say if she had given her the love potions, she had got

from Gorge. She was confident that her sister would have a similar reaction to herself, which would be amusing. Then she saw the only people that were not in a festive mood wandered past them. They were the family of the two people that were still was unconscious. They should recover almost entirely, but it would take time. She eventually had to say goodbye to her sister and return to the castle. There was no time to visit from Weasleys Wizarding Weasleys, and she knew that she would be far from alone at this time of the year. She had amused the thought of staying at the leaky cauldron, but it was impossible to get rooms on charismas.

She waited nervously to meet Rosie as the day she returned arrived. Rosie could immediately tell that she had discovered something. She looked at River calmly but expectantly, and River told her everting she had learned. Rosie gave her two thumbs up. Then she spoke about her wanting to confront and try to make Aden to turn himself in. Rosie was less inclined to give him a chance but conceded that it was Rivers sister that had gotten hurt and if she took some precautions she would have her support.

It was that the weak after classes had started that she finally confronted Aden outside charm classroom. He had just finest Charms and he would have an entire hour until his next class. He looked tired she walked up to him and asked "Aden might I speak to you about something?" he looked up and with a shadow of his usual smile said "sure what is it about?" she responded in a voice none but Aden would hear "I wanted to talk about Spider." His expression assured her that she had been right.

Before he had time to recover, she said "let go somewhere more private and talk" they headed to an abandoned classroom. She entered fist and gave the hidden camera two thumbs up. When he had closed the door, she said. "Before you say anything, I need to show you that I know the secrets of true Hogwarts or you will set off a curse" She then to his amazement stated everything she knew, and when she finished, he stared at her and said in a week voice. "How did you know it was me that where Spider?" She explained the interviews and his tendency to write spider analogies. He smiled. It was not a very friendly smile, but she could not see any malice, and he said in a desperate voice, "that does not seem to be enough for it to stick" "it is enough they use Veritaserum." She calmly retorted

His entire body sunk and he said in a week voice "but that is illegal to use against students. If I had known what the group would become I would have thought more about my code name" River nodded and said" yes it was until they changed the rules under he who should not be named rule and it has not been one of this administration top priorities to alter that back. "He looked resigned to his fate and said, "what will you do?" She looked at him straight in the eyes and said, "It depends on this conservation" he smiled, "shaking me down?" she did not look away and calmly said, "No, but I first need to know two things. Why did you join and why have you not turned yourself in" he was shaking seemingly close to tears "The answer to your first question is simple. I was so angry at the Slytherin only the greatest offenders got any form of punishment at all and I have to see the guy who hurt my sister on a dare every Thursday when we have potion. There where countless similar event perpetrated by Slytherins. Except a few were either too afraid to do anything or actively joining in. Your second question is that if I turn my self in, I will not have a future. The only way for me to get out of this is if I find the identity of Phoenix or Dragon." He grew salient. he did not know who Dragon that was a letdown River thought.

He continued stating to sound angry," you would not understand how it is to feel like you have no future," she busted out laughing. She could not help herself; he looked taken aback. When the laughing fit she surprised even herself with the anger in her voice "have you forgotten what I am? Do you think that I will have any future exempt maybe the ministry's pet werewolf? That they can point to and say look they can be good. I do not have a way out unless I jump from the astronomy tower." She shouted the last sentence. That was something that had been building inside her for quite some time.

Aden looked probably ashamed which calmed River down, "how much do you have?" Aden sighed in relief that her explosion was over "I just need a bit more time maybe two or three month "River smiled out of pity and said in a soft tone" you do not have that long. The only reason that they have not gotten you yet is that you do not fit their profile and that they have Phoenix and Dragon as their top priority. But that will either turn into arrest or a dead end. Then you will be next, and they will find you easily enough if they put their minds to it. Or do you really think you are smarter than the professors, ministry and Hemione Granger combined." At the mention of the last name, he looked terrified and stammered. "No but but but" he stopped and looked desperate at her. She gave what she hoped was an encouraging smile and said, "if you collaborate, you will get a lighter punishment. You have not killed anybody, and you were against the plan from the beginning. Turn yourself in for your own sake."

He looked up at the sky then seemed to make a decision and said, "Will you walk with me after I retrieved my notes to a teacher I fear that otherwise that my nerves will fail me." It would involve her exposing that she had broken her word, so she smiled and said: "sure if you exclude how much I know and that it was purely from your own conscious." River said a salient thanks to the Silver tongue potion Rosie had made for her.

They headed to the Gryffindor common room, and River waited outside. For a couple of minutes, then he emerged with a couple of papers in his hand. They walked towards where they would find the closets professor that they knew was free. It was again Professor Flitwick. When they found him, Aden took a deep breath and walked in, and River followed him. For a second, she got the image of him going towards the professor and saying, "here I brought

you Spider she is right here." But he just said, "I need to talk to you about spiders". Professor Flitwick looked confused for a second before looking River with an unnamed question. Professor Flitwick interrupted him from speaking more after he had confessed of being Spider. "let not have to do this twice again, and we continue this conservation in the headmistress office." When he said again, he looked at River, which court Aden's attention, but he did not say anything.

They headed to the headmistress office. Where McGonagall heard his entire confession without showing any emotions. When he mentioned that River only was there because he had asked her to be emotional support. The only response was a raised eyebrow. finally, McGonagall said to River, "you can leave now Blackwell. I have some more questions to Aden, but we will speak again shortly." That sent a lot of red alerts in her mind, but she nodded, said "head mistress," and with a final, what she hoped was an encouraging smile, she and professor Flitwick went down again.

They headed back, and River went straight to the dungeon, and River told Rosie what happened since they walked out of the classroom. When she finished, Rosie gestured "McGonagall scary" River had to agree she did not look forward to that meeting, and she would have to have some Silver tongue potion with her. Rosie gave her another bottle of x, and River hung it on her neck, where it was next to the shield charm. On impulse, she took out the shield charm and gave it to Rosie. River said, " late Marry chrismas" She had a party with Rosie as they celebrated that they had "captured" the Spider.


	12. Chapter 12

There was no news the next day about an arrest, and to Rivers relief, she saw Aden two days after they had walked into the headmistress office. He walked towards her with a huge grin and said, "miss Blackwell, can I have a moment of your time? I just want you to know that your recipe on blueberry muffins seem to be immensely popular with my tester. I was wondering if you have any more recipe as we plan to make a coking issue." River smiled and said, "sure," and She Aden and Rosie walked to an empty classroom. Aden looked around that smiled broadly at them "I cannot thank you enough for conversing me to turn myself in. It was close for them to turn their focus on Spider as their trail had started to dry up, but thanks to my information and theirs, we might have a shot." Still, a recipe," River said, "Aden smiled. "I needed an excuse for why we talked yesterday, and it was the best I could come up with on short notice. I did sacrifice my secret recipe. I have not slept this good since this all began. I will not waste the chance you help give me, and I will forever be in your debt." Thank you again," that he turned around and headed back. The next week was calm. All the teachers seemed distracted, and Aden was going around interview people left and right.

River a Rose was headed to Transfiguration class as a thought struck her, and River said, "do you think that…" she never finished that sentence. She feels the incredible need to go to the bathroom. She excused herself from Rosie and ran to the nearest bathroom. She told Rosie as she went to not wait for her. River cursed that there was such a long way to the closest bathroom from there. She took a left turn, then up several stairs, then down a long corridor. She could not think of much else than that she needed to go. She met no one when she entered the final stretch to the bathroom, and it seemed like this part of the castle was empty. She rushed into the bathroom, took the nearest stall. She collapsed and only then realized something was very wrong. River had gone to the toilet not too long ago, and the need had arrived too suddenly.

There was silence for a couple of seconds as she needs to go to the bathroom completely disappeared. Then she heard panicked whispers, "why is not the other one coming? we were supposed to take out both of them. "That sent shivers down her spine as two girls took positions around the stale. River noticed that she could see one girl in the gap. She had taken a very exposed place as she would be blocked when she opened the door. River noticed that the girl was so close that she would hit her if she opened it. She had no desire to find out what they wanted to do with them.

She did not want to take the risk. The door was not even locked; they could just open the door. They could use Almora to open it also if she had closed it. They seemed content with waiting for her but probably not for much longer. She took a deep breath and flushed, covering the noise of the strength charm. Then she heaved the door with all her magical strength. It flew open, and it was a crunched as the door shattered the girl's arm. Then continued past as it flew off its hinges and landed with a heavy thud. Startling the other assailant, a dark-haired Ravenclaw fifth-grader and before she could recover River shouted "Petrificus Totalus." Her arm and leg forcefully looked together. She then tipped over fell backward toward the stall opposite the one River had chosen her wand clattering to the floor. She looked down on the first assailant; a pretty blond that was gasping on the floor her arm destroyed. River winced. That would alert Rosie that something was going on, and she would be making her way over here. River felt her magical strength leave her as the charm had not probably applied.

She heard someone opening the door and not knowing if it was friend or foe. She turned a bit too quickly and yelled expelliarmus. It hit a Ravenclaw boy. She felt a brief moment of disbelief as her incorrectly performed counter jinx disarmed them both. The wands collided in the air and landed on the ground, almost precisely an equal distance between them. They just looked at each other in disbelief. He was a dark-haired fifth year. They recovered at the same time and charged. She lagged a bit so that just before he dived for the wands, River kicked him. He staggered back, and she followed him and tried to get a clean hit on the head, but he was just out of reach. He charged past her, surprised her, and dived for the wands.

River jumped on top of him, pinning his wand arm and trying to punch him in the face with the other. His other hand was in her face trying to push her away. River bit into his hand as hard as she could. The boy screamed far more than from the pain. It was a sound of pure terror. River was able to think "Werewolf." Curses flew everything as he tried to point the wand toward her, but she managed to keep the wand away from her. He hit her in the head, sending her head spinning. She got a lucky hit in return and managed to stun him temporally. She took that moment of respite to punch him over and over until River realized that he was not fighting back anymore. For a moment, she thought she might have killed him, but to River's relief, she noised that he was breathing at least.

She picked up both wands and put the boy's wand in her poked as she was surveying the damage his curses had done. Some of them had hit the paralyzed Ravenclaw, and now she looked a lot more pinkish, and I looked like steam rose from her. The blond girl had passed out. River wondered if Rosie could still feel the pain.

She heard steps, and she knew that she did not have another fight that River just had in her, so when the door opened, she imminently yelled, "Petrificus Totalus." It was Ravenclaws Headboy Nehemaih her Petrificus Totaluswere deflected by a flick of his wrist. Before she was able to anything else, her wand flew out of her hands. She then just stood there completely at a loss of what to do when he shot out ropes from his wand that tied her up, and she fell to the ground.

He looked around with a baffled expression. I sent the three of you to take down two practically third years, and you all get beaten by one? Where not you supposed to be the elite inner circle" He shook his head. "you are Phoenix" River on a hunch. He smiled a sinister smile, "no, we all are" and stretch out his arms in a gesture that would be much more impressive if the others were not out cold.

He got a calculating expression as he looked at his subordinates. He was displeased with how his plan was proceeding. River needed to by the time she knew that Rosie was on her way here and that if she did not have the element of surprise, there was no way she would be able to win. She looked at the blond member hoping that Rosie would arrive soon. River tried to reach her pocket with the extra wand but was unable to reach it.

River asked the first thing that came to her mind, "why us?" "his expression turned into a snarl, and he almost spat out "Did you think your visit to the headmistress went unnoticed?" She was desperately trying to find something to distract him. She snickered to get HIs attention "do you think you are some sort of heroes you are just cowards. The reason I could beat all of your subordinates is that they were incompetent as are you"

He smiled at her "I cannot argue on my supporters as they did lose three against one. It a great final act for you" River felt cold, and her voice shaking said, "final?" His smile widens, and he said "Yes I have a fall guy that I will have to kill you, and the fall will take suicide" River felt could and her eyes drifted to the blond now both hoping that Rosie would come and save her and to stay away so that they did not kill her as well. "What are you looking at, "Nehemaih said. River tried to make her expression a blank as possible as she meets his compilating expression, then his eyes widen, and he was laughing. That is right; she probably felt the pain before she passed out and is perhaps on her way here. River was unable to keep the horror from her face

He looked calculating and said to himself, "there is enough time" He looked at River said, "I am sorry, but I need her to pick up the pace" he pointed his wand at her and said "crusio" she like her entire body was on fire ever part screaming. It felt like it lasted a long time. And then suddenly it was over. He smiled as something on his watch there she is. She should be here in a couple of minutes if she hurries. Oh, and by the way, the room is charmed, no sound escapes, so screaming is pointless River knew that this might be her last chance, so she asked" at least tell me who Dragon is" His expression turned dark, and he said "Sebastian Foster. He continued the poison I wanted to use would have sent a strong message without getting the entire ministry on us, and we could have advanced to phase two that we had planned in detail, and all of it ruined by that guy and his stupid house elf. A house-elf had poisoned the food River felt confused, but he was on a roll. Talking about all the details of his plane and all that Dragon had destroyed them all up. Even in all his ranting, he never took his eyes and wand away from the door."

He finished his monolog, and she knew she had to if River wanted to live River started to fling every insult she could think of at him. That he had a stupid name, they were all cowards, that they were crazy if they thought that they could escape Hermione Granger "to Rivers delight and horror it worked his smile completely disappeared he said with a voice that was dripping with poison "crusio ".

Everything was pain. She forgot her name, reality, her plan everting. She could not scream; she could not cry; it was all pain. The pain where there at the beginning of her existence, and when it ended, she returned to reality sobbing. Nehemiah's smile returned, and he said:" do you doubt me now, bitch, or do you want another demonstration." She just shook her head he smiled widen and said in a false "to bad" He let it hang for a moment then with disdain in his voice said "Crusio" It was not as bad as the last one as she could scream and did that. He was so distracted that he had not noticed that his crusio curses had damaged the ropes.

He looked away from her and focused on the door. She knew that she should insult him to try to distract him, but she was unable to form the words. Then she felt anger and hatred that were not her own. Nehemiah got an expression of triumph, then he staggered back, clutching his head.

A second later, Rosie opened the door. A look of absolute focus on her face. River started to try to get free from the damaged ropes. She began to get an arm free as Rosie started to weaken. Nehemiah began to utter half-formed curses before Rosie was able to disrupt him. River was almost free with one arm when she heard Nehemiah say "avada "before he was interrupted by Rosie unleashing a desperate attack. River almost cried in relief when River was able to reach her pocket, and with the borrowed wand, River used strength charm. She heard "avada ka…" before she used her strength to break her bonds and lunged at Nehemiah. He had almost recovered enough to try a third time, but River grabbed his arms. His ways widen in fear as she, with the full force of her enhanced strength, snapped his arms. She used so much power that her wrist snapped, and they both collapsed, screaming in pain.

Rosie almost collapsed as well but had the presence of mind to collect all the wands and then collapsing by River's side. They needed to tell someone, but they were both so tired. The pain made it hard for River to think. They both sat there, not having the energy to even get up. River almost passed out, and Rosie looked like she was going to try to get up. When Professor Sprout and McKnight, as well as Hemione, busted in. They all three looked like they had run a marathon and were breathing heavily. They were surveying the situation noticing River and Rosie. "What happens here, professor Sprout" explained River opened her mouth to tell her then promptly passed out.

River woke up in the hospital wing and felt much better. There were a lot of teachers plus Hermione Granger around her bed. The first thing she told them was what the leader had said about Dragon as it was vital that they got to him before he heard about Phoenix capture. Professor Mcknight went Immediately

along with professor sprout. River wondered if the two that had the messed-up body slowing charm had not been an accident, but something dragon had done on purpose.

Then she told them exactly what had happened from her toilet emergency to braking his arms and her wrists.

After she finished, there was a moment of silence. McGonagall smiled "very well done you two" River realizing something, "how did you know that we were in trouble.?" "Hermione said, "we have a way to keep tabs on students, and so we found our lead suspect where somewhere where he should not be. We investigated we found him unconscious, and then we saw some strange moment around another of our suspect which was Nehemiah." When we saw that you were there, we sent a couple for you, and the rest stayed with Elliot Lee. How he intended to move you from one location to the other is still a mystery". Then Madam Pomfrey threw the other out to let River and Rosie rest.

After an hour, Granger came back and looked into how she was doing. Then Professor sprout entered and said, "I have bad news. Dragon is dead. It looks like suicide, and he killed the house elf. He left a note he nodded it is his handwriting with a manifesto" Hermione screamed "That basted! Do he think he owns that poor creature". River relaxed, glad that everything was over.

According to the rumors, she had single handily beaten all of them without a wand with her super-strength. It did not matter that she tried to tell them she used a strength charm or that it was luck. The masses had already made up their mind, and this just confirmed that she was a super werewolf. She even got a nickname bone crusher.

Two weeks later, the Slytherin retuned. The time had come to tell her sister everting, so she invited her to her room. Her sister asked, "Why are no one complaining that you are taking a Slytherin into the common room". River smiled and said, "they do not dear oppose the bone crusher." Her sister raised an eyebrow ad River said:" It is a long story and some things I do not want to get overhead."

They arrived at their common room, and Vivi looked impressed "I did not know that your common room was this specious" She investigated River's room. "Why do you get such a big room and I have to share with three others." River smiled "it is one of the privileges of being a freak as is a weak a moth when you do not have to go up at a specific time."

Vivi gave her an apoplectic smile and said, ". So, what are you wanted to talk about?" River started her story from the beginning and told her everting. When she finished, her sister hugged her. She smiled at her and said, "amazing work sis do not do it again, or you will make me have a heart attack" River returned her smile and said "I will try" "I wonder how they were able to track you and the others. It was not possible last year otherwise ether we or the other side would have played thing differently." Vivi shrugged

River said, "now is it your turn to tell me how your time has been". Vivi said, "We moved to a secret location where we studied. We have the option to take the finals later or retry this year."

River said, "can you at least tell me what you have planned now?" Vivi nodded and said casually, "me and three others are going to open an orphanage." River just stared at her sister and said, "a what?" her sister said, "orphanage it is the place children with nowhere else to go" She stuck out her tongue at her. She said, "you know what I mean" her sister turned seriously" It something that much needed, and I and three others have decided to open one. River did not know what to say for a couple of seconds, then said: "When did this happen?" Vivi said, "we started to talk about it at the start of the year, but I did not want to say anything before everything was set in stone. It's me, a girl from Hufflepuff, a guy from Gryffindor and a guy from Ravenclaw." River felt even more confused "How did you meet them?" Vivi shrugged, "we meet last year as I helped them out of some tuff spots, and we kept contact." River had one more question "what is its name?" Vivi sighed and said, "that undecided yet. My suggestion in the four rivers but the others have fascinating suggestions themself" When she finished, she started laughing at River's expression.

The rest of the year, the teacher compensating for the laxness they had doing the incident with an insane amount of homework and River, and Rosie spent a lot of time studying. In defense against the dark art, they had lupins terrain course which River nailed. The bogart, in the end, she had to skip as it could not decide what it was going to look like as the charm looked the memories it tried to access.

Flitwick was proud of her results at charms and asked her to show off her strength charm. This time she used a durability charm on herself and lifted a desk one-handed and tossed it lightly in the air. Unfortunately, a couple of students went by and saw her. Thankfully, they read the situation somewhat correctly and did not assume that she was threatening a professor, but from that point on, she could not escape the rumor that she had super strength.

Transfiguration and cere of magical best continued to be a struggle for River, and Rosie was often called one of the most gifted students Slughorn ever had.

Summer came, and she had to say goodbye to Rosie. River almost said she would call her but caught herself before saying something that stupid. They came to an agreement that they would write to each other.

River arrived at the place of the new orphanage. It looked like an empty field to the muggles. To River she saw what looked like an old boarding school. "What is this place?" River asked, "it was an attempt forty years ago to start a new school for Witcraft and Wizardry. It failed miserably, but it is big, its locales are in good condition, and it was dirt cheap," Vivi answered. Rosie looked at the sign atop the gate. In beautiful cursive, it spelled out "Crooked Lightning orphanage" _**The end **_

End of 1,0

Thank you for reading!

I have plans to return to this story after a brake to improve grammar, spelling, story structure, character arks, etcetera. I have ruffe ideas for a year two and three, and even some ideas beyond that.

I hope you have a wonderful day and again. Thank you for reading!


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